tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84401047516897051342018-03-06T00:41:21.193-05:00All That JazzInsomnia inspired fanaticism about the NBA . . . and all that jazz.Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.comBlogger283125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-57977663825296540112009-10-02T21:41:00.001-04:002009-10-02T21:41:46.973-04:002009-2010 Pre-season Game 1 Highlights: Denver at Utah<blockquote> <p>Do any of you remember last year’s pre-season game that was <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/possibly-worst-ever-pre-season-game.html" target="_blank">supposed to be the worst ever</a>, but <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/wow-possible-best-ever-pre-season-game.html" target="_blank">ended up being pretty exciting</a> (for fans, as it went to Overtime, with the good guys winning by a point)? Well, those same two teams faced off last night and here are the highlights (via YouTube – until the NBA pulls this video down). Enjoy, and remember, C.J. Miles for MIP !!!</p> </blockquote> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="600" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300"> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:1bfc4d9b-507e-4986-9f94-7de02b579ee8" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="8fa4dc37-bed5-43f1-aefc-d0662492efab" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOLIWSvhYDk&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6" target="_new"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Ssar2nw8spI/AAAAAAAAB6E/fUi8dX6hLts/video45984e4f93cb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('8fa4dc37-bed5-43f1-aefc-d0662492efab'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = &quot;&lt;div&gt;&lt;object width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=\&quot;movie\&quot; value=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/IOLIWSvhYDk&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/param&gt;&lt;embed src=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/IOLIWSvhYDk&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot; type=\&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash\&quot; width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/embed&gt;&lt;\/object&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;&quot;;" alt=""></a></div></div></div> </td> <td valign="top" width="300"><strong>Woo! Basketball!</strong> <br />(that’s not the WNBA)</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-69277995342978907462009-10-02T20:49:00.001-04:002009-10-02T20:49:04.938-04:00Notice 2<p>Some articles to expect (when they’re done!):</p> <ol> <li>A full explanation of my newer revisions for my previously posted new stats. (<a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/07/these-arent-john-hollingers-dads.html" target="_blank">original post</a> – super duper long; <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/07/rethinking-go-rating.html" target="_blank">1st revision</a>)</li> <li>Analysis of the revolving door at back-up PG over the years for the <strong>Jazz</strong></li> <li><strong>X-O’s</strong> analysis of the evolution of the Forward oriented offense (from <strong>Dick Motta</strong>), over time and multiple rules changes to the game</li> <li><strong>2009-2010 Season Preview</strong></li> <li>Hardcore stat analysis of our current team</li> <li>Some nostalgia pieces</li> <li>My opinion on the whole <strong>Bynum/Kareem</strong> issue</li> </ol> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-66192286797988994982009-10-02T20:41:00.001-04:002009-10-02T20:42:45.482-04:00Notice<p>Hello all. No doubt some have noticed a general lack of posting of late. Last off-season I had loads of free time, and enthusiasm, for posting. This off-season things have been a little less super when it comes to free time. (Or some would say, <em>time management</em>) I kept trying to make goals for me to reach per month, then per week, and so forth. These were goals that I was unable to keep when mixing my busy schedule, my so-called career and balancing my family life with the whole ‘blogging’ thing. I’m quite active on <a href="http://twitter.com/allthatamar" target="_blank">twitter</a>, and do stop into a few basketball websites frequently enough to share my views on things. (mostly <a href="http://www.slcdunk.com/" target="_blank">slcdunk.com</a> and <a href="http://www.dimemag.com/" target="_blank">dimemag.com</a>)</p> <p>I missed blogging about the <strong>NBA Draft</strong>; the <strong>HOF ceremonies</strong>; about all the international competitions; and <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/utah-jazz-2008-2009-season-preview.html" target="_blank">this season there’s not going to be a massive 20+ Pre-Season Preview</a> – like there was last season. I do still enjoy blogging, and still have a lot of posts in me to get out. So I’m not going to be closing the doors – but I will be making myself available for outsourcing. (here’s something I wrote for <a href="http://twitter.com/nat77" target="_blank">@Nat77</a> on <a href="http://heelsonhardwood.com/2009/09/match-ups-toronto-raptors-vs-utah-jazz/" target="_blank">her amazing blog</a>; and something I wrote for <a href="http://twitter.com/AustinatDIMEmag" target="_blank">DimeMag</a> on <a href="http://dimemag.com/2009/09/pass-the-mic-2009-hall-of-fame-honors-jerry-sloan/" target="_blank">Jerry Sloan getting in the Hall</a> – if you want to see what kind of stuff I’m capable of)</p> <p>There’s some unfinished business for both the <strong>Jazz</strong> and for me – so don’t count us entirely out yet. But for the mean time, expect a few more posts at this location, and hopefully many more on other websites. (hey <strong>ESPN</strong>, gimme a job – here’s a free sample for Insider: “Kobe Kobe Lakers Slurp Slurp Adande Sportsguy Phil Jackson Jordan Kobe LeBron!”)</p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="600" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="600"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Ssadv9sZD1I/AAAAAAAAB58/GEKGEe7VbD4/s1600-h/kobe-hows-my-ass-taste%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="hope you understand memes" border="0" alt="hope you understand memes" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SsadwMd7YMI/AAAAAAAAB6A/xjN3nslGa_U/kobe-hows-my-ass-taste_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="644" height="430" /></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="600">Image from <a href="http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j141/ECKoolAid/lolsports/kobe-hows-my-ass-taste.jpg" target="_blank">here</a>; thanks to <a href="http://loljocks.blogspot.com/2008/06/shaqs-ass-might-taste-like-pumpkin-pie.html" target="_blank">LOL Jocks</a> (<em>a must bookmark</em>!)</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p>If you know how to put my blog in a google reader type of thing, or subscribe to my updates then feel free to do so. Probably the best way to stay connected to my infrequent postings. If you are on twitter I think you should follow me as I generally stop in there every day and talk sports – and announce when I post something too. <a href="http://twitter.com/AllThatAmar" target="_blank">Follow me @AllThatAmar</a></p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-20626623682057104262009-07-31T00:15:00.001-04:002009-07-31T00:15:52.451-04:00Dear Blog reader<p>Thank you for your support over all these months, all of you, even the people who come here looking for e-mail addresses to use in <strong>Nigerian</strong> Spam Scams, the 83 people who do not yet have closure on <strong>Blue Edward’s</strong> paternity case, and of course, the people who are redirected here when searching the ‘net to see if <strong>Jeff Hornacek</strong> made any all-NBA defense teams. (<a href="http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hornaje01.html" target="_blank">Btw, the answer is no</a>) I’ve tried to be fair, and write interesting posts for everyone to enjoy. Some deal with stats, others with looking back upon <strong>NBA records</strong>, or old players or whatever. That said, even when you try you just can’t support 100% of the readership 100% of the time.</p> <p>So, to the 5 people who visit my blog under 640x480 resolution and the 11 people who visit my blog under 800x600 resolution, I’m really sorry. My blog will not be able to support your continued readership at this point in time. I can only hope that in the year of our Obama-lord 2009 that the only way you are visiting my site (let alone any other) under those pre-millennial resolutions would be if your computer happens to be running in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_mode" target="_blank">safe mode</a>. I’m flattered, I really am, but if you are in Safe mode, please try to get your computer fixed. The basketball commentary can wait for another time.</p> <p>If those are the best resolutions your computer can do, it may be time to spend the $500 bucks to buy a new minimum spec desktop that’ll at least take you to 1024x768 and 1 gig of RAM.</p> <p>And yes, the vast majority of the random / non-repeat reader of my blog comes here to find out more info on <strong>Blue Edwards/Kimberly Van de Perre</strong>. (That and pictures of <strong>CeCe Boozer</strong>)</p> <p>Thank you,</p> <p>and now we will resume our regularly unscheduled blogging.</p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-77577701304295774652009-07-28T07:32:00.001-04:002009-07-28T07:32:46.731-04:00Deron Williams / Ronnie Brewer 6th best Backcourt in NBA ?<p>There are some really good tandems out there in the <strong>NBA</strong> right now. <strong>Kobe Bryant</strong> and <strong>Derek Fisher</strong>, <strong>Tony Parker</strong> and <strong>E<em><u>manu</u></em>el Ginobili</strong> along with <strong>Rajon Rondo</strong> and <strong>Ray Allen</strong> obviously comprise championship caliber backcourts. <strong>Mike Bibby</strong> paired up with <strong>Joe Johnson</strong> causes all kinds of trouble for defenders – similarly <strong>Steve Nash</strong> and <strong>Jason Richardson</strong> can flat out make defenders look silly. Even hypothetically amazing backcourts will assemble this season, like in <strong>Portland</strong> with <strong>Andre Miller</strong> and <strong>Brandon Roy</strong>, and down in <strong>Orlando</strong> with <strong>Jameer Nelson</strong> and <strong>Vince Carter</strong>. These are all great backcourts in paper, but just where does <strong>Deron Williams</strong> and <strong>Ronnie Brewer</strong> rank among them? <strong>Justin DeFeo</strong>, of <a href="http://sircharlesincharge.com/"><strong>Sir Charles in Charge</strong></a>, states that the <strong>Jazz</strong> tandem is clearly a <strong>Top 10 backcourt</strong> in the league – <em>6th specifically</em> – and one where both players “<a href="http://sircharlesincharge.com/2009/07/27/rajon-rondo-and-ray-allen-tops-among-nba-backcourts/">compliment each other well</a>,” (DeFeo, 2009, ¶13). He continues to say that:</p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="627" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="400" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="400"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm7h1MYOjuI/AAAAAAAAB5Y/P1FTbUafgQc/s1600-h/full_getty71797011mm008_nets_jazz_11%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="No rookie, look where I&#39;m pointing" border="0" alt="No rookie, look where I&#39;m pointing" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm7h1miRZYI/AAAAAAAAB5c/6PXGcWcGowU/full_getty71797011mm008_nets_jazz_11.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="275" /></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="400"><em>Photographed by Melissa Majchrzak for NBAE/Getty Images</em></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td valign="top" width="325"> <p align="left"><font size="4">Williams is the do it all point guard and has the ball in his hands often, so he needs to be paired with a shooting guard who can do other things (defend, rebound) and create opportunities for himself without the ball (steals, loose balls, offensive rebounds) and thats (<em>sic</em>) the type of game Brewer has. </font></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <div align="left">This is high praise, and I fully appreciate someone else noticing that while <strong>Deron</strong> isn’t a classic point guard, and <strong>Brewer</strong> surely is not a classic shooting guard (<em>isn’t he just a SF who defends the other teams’ best perimeter scorer</em>?), that together they are a pretty good team. Let’s go over some of the ways in which they do compliment each other:</div> <p><strong><u><em><font color="#0080ff" size="4">Offense:</font></em></u></strong></p> <p><strong>Deron</strong> dominates the ball on offense. Some teams have some sort of ball-sharing provision between the <strong>PG</strong> and the <strong>SG</strong> (like how <strong>Brandon Roy</strong> basically had to do everything himself in <strong>Portland</strong>). This has never been the case in Utah, not in <strong>Stockton’s</strong> time, and not now. <strong>Deron</strong> has a very solid handle on the ball and is able to maneuver himself into the lane with or without help from screens. <strong>Williams</strong> does this not with simple blinding speed, or a series of picks from teammates, he uses power and finesse to go from point A to point B, going over any and all terrain in the process. <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/07/youtube-tuesdays-penetrating-thoughts.html" target="_blank">He has all the moves</a>, and can get into the lane whenever he wants. (<em>Essentially, he’s a swashbuckler with a basketball in his hands</em>) He’s not just a PG who will bring the ball up the floor, hang out at the three point line, and pass the ball to someone to start a play. <strong>Deron’s</strong> penetration allows for defenders to shift their attention from the man they are guarding to <strong>Deron Williams</strong> (who is a scoring threat in the lane). This shifted attention allows for guys who move well without the ball to find open spots (often in their defender’s blindspots) and be in scoring position. If <strong>Deron Williams</strong> is daring swashbuckler who can move with a quickness and body control that belie his physique then <strong>Ronnie Brewer</strong> is the stealthy assassin who moves in the shadows, unaccounted for, with muscles tensed up for a finishing strike. It happens <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Tck9KSST0">again</a>, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP2gRYX_RAY&amp;feature=channel">again</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqwFiaZgb9g&amp;feature=channel">again</a>. Ideally, a drive and dish PG would be paired with a guy who had a reliable outside shot – but at best, a three pointer is a 40% success rate, while dunks are, generally speaking, much, much more effective.</p> <p><strong>Deron</strong> is a capable three point shooter – though his percentage has been a roller coaster his entire NBA career (<a href="http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/willide01.html">42%, then 32%, then 40%, then 31%</a>), and if he’s the only one of the two with an outside shot you can clearly see a deficiency in that department for this backcourt tandem. (By comparison, <strong>LA</strong>, <strong>Orlando</strong>, <strong>Atlanta</strong> and a few other teams on <strong>DeFeo’s</strong> list are replete with guys who can absolutely bomb from outside)</p> <p>This group is just as adept in halfcourt sets as they are on the break. Utah produces a lot of deflections and <strong>Brewer</strong> starts as many breaks (with his natural quickness and 6’11 wingspan) as he is capable of finishing (with his 42” vertical). <strong>Deron</strong> hardly ever makes the wrong decision on who to pass to, and the two (naturally) hook up for Alley-Oops more frequently than any <strong>Utah</strong> tandem since <strong>Mark Jackson</strong> played here. Offensively, the two are nearly a match made in heaven.</p> <p></p> <p><strong><u><em><font color="#0080ff" size="4">Defense:</font></em></u></strong></p> <p>If <strong>Deron</strong> is the leader on <strong>Offense</strong>, <strong>Ronnie</strong> is the leader on <strong>Defense</strong>. <strong>Brewer</strong> starts the game off checking the other teams’ best scoring wing – regardless if he is a shooter or slasher or whatever. <strong>Ronnie</strong> gets the call until<strong> AK</strong> gets off the bench. If the last few playoffs are an indication – few players play better man defense (without fouling) on <strong>Kobe Bryant</strong> than <strong>Brewer</strong> does. In no way am I suggesting that <strong>Brewer</strong> shuts <strong>Kobe</strong> down, I’m just saying that he plays good man defense. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikKLQvt5YJU" target="_blank">Many times I’ve seen <strong>Kobe</strong> take shots that absolutely could not have been defended better without the aid of being allowed to do<strong> Bruce Bowen</strong> style fouling, and still make them over<strong> Ronnie</strong></a>. <strong>Kobe</strong> just makes amazing shots – and he’s had quite a few against <strong>Brewer</strong>. <strong>Brewer</strong> is more than just a speed bump on defense. His long arms, quickness and penchant for playing the passing lanes made him one of the league leaders in steals last season. He’s long enough, with good enough hops that I would expect him to get more ‘from behind’ <strong>LeBron</strong> style blocks this season though. While <strong>Brewer</strong> is a physical freak, his defensive instincts lead the way – and that’s usually towards pressuring the other team into making a mistake.</p> <p>Deron does not get all the flashy steals that Brewer does, but he is quick enough on defense to stay with faster ball handlers, and just big and physical enough to discourage them from driving too much. (Just look at how the, honestly, best PG in the NBA, Chris Paul, is so taken out of his game whenever he plays Deron. CP3 owns everyone, and he is rightfully the best PG in the league right now. Deron is just the perfect storm on defense to give him trouble, and good enough on offense to tire him out there) If the first foundation for team defense is to slow down the other team’s ball handler / forward progression, then it’s obvious that Deron Williams is a very solid defender.</p> <p>Together they comprise a physical, long defensive backcourt. <strong>Brewer</strong> is 6’7 with <a href="http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-pre-draft-measurements/?page=&amp;year=2006&amp;sort2=ASC&amp;draft=100&amp;pos=2&amp;sort=15" target="_blank">the previously mentioned 6’11 wingspan and the quickness of a man much smaller than he</a>. <strong>Deron</strong> is a 6’3 point guard who was a wrestler in high school and deceptively quick. (<a href="http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-pre-draft-measurements/?year=2005&amp;sort2=ASC&amp;draft=100&amp;pos=1&amp;sort=15" target="_blank">check out his draft combine scores</a>, you’ll be surprised) If anything, I think that they are better on defense than they are on offense!</p> <p><strong><u><em><font color="#0080ff" size="4">What do the Stats Say:</font></em></u></strong></p> <p>I’m a stats junkie. So this is important to me. Also, I guess I’m debuting my new stats format. If you want to know about what some of these things are, <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/07/these-arent-john-hollingers-dads.html">you can always read my treatise on my own created stats</a>. If you don’t want to, just wait for the analysis that will appear below.</p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="600" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300"><strong><font color="#8000ff" size="4">Deron Williams</font></strong></td> <td valign="top" width="300"><strong><font color="#8000ff" size="4">Ronnie Brewer</font></strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm7h19-9qqI/AAAAAAAAB5g/fscfP2QoEiQ/s1600-h/Oct%209%202008%20%5BMelissa%20Majchrzak%20NBAE%20Getty%5D%20Deron%20drives%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Oct 9 2008 [Melissa Majchrzak NBAE Getty]" border="0" alt="Oct 9 2008 [Melissa Majchrzak NBAE Getty]" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm7h2EFixtI/AAAAAAAAB5k/ZE0en32ggoc/Oct%209%202008%20%5BMelissa%20Majchrzak%20NBAE%20Getty%5D%20Deron%20drives_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="304" height="454" /></a> </td> <td valign="top" width="300"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm7h2b6kwaI/AAAAAAAAB5o/4EYodjlJD0o/s1600-h/Nov%2026%202008%20%5BAP%20Photo%5D%20Brewer%20throws%20it%20down%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Nov 26 2008 [AP Photo] Brewer throws it down" border="0" alt="Nov 26 2008 [AP Photo] Brewer throws it down" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm7h2xihtXI/AAAAAAAAB5s/GNVKonfl-BM/Nov%2026%202008%20%5BAP%20Photo%5D%20Brewer%20throws%20it%20down_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="304" height="454" /></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300"><a href="http://api.photoshop.com/home_2b9cfd5172294a0486be51ca0d78a064/adobe-px-assets/39f49927b2b849c49eb63586522e54a2" target="_blank"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="click for original image" border="0" alt="click for original image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm7h3DCef5I/AAAAAAAAB5w/Mp3iyi-9h40/Stats%20-%202008-2009%20Reg%20-%20Deron%20Williams%5B12%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="304" height="480" /></a> </td> <td valign="top" width="300"><a href="http://api.photoshop.com/home_2b9cfd5172294a0486be51ca0d78a064/adobe-px-assets/cff904caf8834799b59dd51b4c7f1a64" target="_blank"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="click for original image" border="0" alt="click for original image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm7h3WcKrZI/AAAAAAAAB54/J21ULqhPmgU/Stats%20-%202008-2009%20Reg%20-%20Ronnie%20Brewer%5B10%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="304" height="480" /></a> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p>First of all, for those of you following along at home, I have changed the <strong>GO Rating</strong>, and expect a new<strong> post about the New formula shortly</strong>. What you need to know about it is what these scores mean. The <strong>GO Rating</strong> incorporates all possible statistically tracked outcomes on offense, hence the full name of “<strong><em>Gestalt Offense</em></strong>”. The <strong>GO Rating</strong> is in light blue, all the things in the light blue cell background are my own invented stats. I think they better round out what you see. Anyway . . . what is a good <strong>GO Rating</strong>? I depends on what you are looking for. If you are a point guard it’s hard to be upset if you get a rating in the 130’s. <strong>Magic Johnson’s</strong> regular season career totals calculate to a <strong>GO Rating of 138.784</strong>. <strong>Allen Iverson’s</strong> <strong>GO Rating</strong> for the same category (<em>career regular season stats</em>) is <strong>134.883</strong>. <strong>Deron</strong> gets <strong>135.701</strong> for his work last season – though shortened by injury, arguably his best season ever. As a further point of reference, <strong>Gary Payton’s</strong> career <strong>GO Rating</strong> is <strong>88.882</strong>, that’s almost 50 points lower than <strong>Deron</strong>. <strong>Brewer’s</strong> rating is much lower, but that’s due to a few major factors. Firstly, wing players who do not take many shots (see shooting frequency, the higher the number the more time it takes to get a shot off) hardly ever do well. <strong>Scottie Pippen’s GO Rating</strong> for his career regular season stats stands at only <strong>71.431</strong>. As solid as <strong>Pip</strong> was offensively, <strong>Brewer</strong> is nearly there in his 3rd season in the <strong>NBA</strong>. That’s not too shabby.</p> <p>Again, the stats don’t lie when they show how poorly they are as a team when it comes to three point shooting. They make up for it with stellar eField Goal percentages (which I think are more important than just FG% and 3PT%). They both shoot better than average, when it comes to their shooting worth (average being 1.2). Offensively they are very competent getting to the line a combined 10 times a game and averaging over 30 points between the two, while dishing the ball with a good Assists to Turn over ratio. Offensively they put up quite solid stats, and I feel like they are even better defensively. Of course, defensive stats are pretty much useless, so take these with a grain of salt. (if you want more on that rant, read my treatise, linked above)</p> <p>These guys don’t usually get called for fouls, so that’s pretty good. What is even better is that both of them come out on the positive side of their defensive gambling – <strong>Brewer</strong> especially makes very smart gambles on defense: effectively getting 2 steals for each fouls he commits. If he was to gamble defensively at that rate he would foul out with nearly 8 steals a game. (For those watching him closely know that <a href="http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?columnist=sheridan_chris&amp;page=teamusawrapup-090726" target="_blank">he got 6 steals in a recent USA Select team scrimmage</a>) <strong>Deron</strong> still manages over a steal per game as well, and his primary duty is to man up on his guy, and not actually go for steals. Neither of them block worth a damn – though <strong>Brewer</strong> should get more in my opinion. Both of their pure hustle ratings clearly fall below that of the <strong>Dream Team members</strong>, but exist within an acceptable range for starters in today’s <strong>NBA</strong>. These defensive statistics are not overwhelming – but I don’t put much stock in defensive stats at all. The best defense causes no effect on an individual’s boxscore; if you defend a guy so well that he takes shot he can’t make then you get nothing, except the satisfaction of playing good defense. These two guys are good defensive players – but Brewer gambles more and gets more steals – and it shows.</p> <p><strong><u><em><font color="#0080ff" size="4">Conclusion:</font></em></u></strong></p> <p>Some statistics are worth more than others, and I’d put my money on the offensive ones actually relating to actually being good at playing. That said, <strong>Deron</strong> and <strong>Ronnie</strong> are a better defensive tandem than offensively, where their weaknesses are more exposed. (Weaknesses being that neither of them shot over 35% from three last year; as a unit they do not produce much from deep per game; they both do not jack up shots frequently (jacking up shots gives you a better Shooting Frequency and GO Rating for some reason); and so forth) Other guard tandems will score more points per game, and probably get to the free throw line more times per game. There will always be a better offensive tandem around. Collectively <strong>Ronnie</strong> and <strong>Deron</strong> make up a better defensive force, and have the talent and ability to get better (they are both closer to 20 than 30 – guys like <strong>Kobe</strong>, <strong>Fish</strong>, <strong>Vince</strong>, <strong>Nash</strong>, <strong>J-Kidd</strong> and others are getting up there and aren’t going to be as good in the next few seasons). They can be a <strong>Top 5 starting backcourt</strong> in the <strong>NBA</strong>, but they just aren’t quite there yet. I agree with <strong>DeFeo’s</strong> rankings and thank him for posting this in the first place!</p> <p align="center"><em>P.S. Thanks to <strong>J.E.Skeets</strong> for the </em><a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/The-10-man-rotation-starring-the-NBA-s-best-bac?urn=nba,178975" target="_blank"><em>Ball Don’t Lie link</em></a><em> directing me to <strong>DeFeo</strong>’s post!</em></p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-58763362694512962912009-07-28T04:43:00.001-04:002009-07-28T05:18:17.024-04:00YouTube Tuesdays: Penetrating thoughts . . .<p>The best guards are the ones who can go where they want to go with the ball, despite what the other team is throwing at them. Essentially, the best guards can penetrate through the heart of the defense in order to better threaten for a score (or easy scoring opportunity for a teammate). <em>Of course</em>, not all guards/wing players are built the same. Though, you do have your archetypes . . .</p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="680" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300"> <p align="left"><strong><u><font color="#8000ff" size="4">The Blur:</font></u></strong> These guys have existed in the <strong>NBA</strong> since the Cenozoic era. They are short in stature, keep their dribble low, and rely upon blinding speed to get from Point A to Point B. Examples of this include <strong>Nate “Tiny” Archibald</strong>, <strong>Michael Adams</strong>, <strong>Muggsy Bogues</strong> and <strong>Avery Johnson</strong>. Modern incarnations may be a little bit taller (like the actually 6’0 <strong>Chris Paul</strong>), or a little bit stronger (like <strong>Nate Robinson</strong>). These guys all have amazing handles and often go deep into the lane and score amongst the trees. Probably the best examples of this type of player would be <strong><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufVhrLa0VgU" target="_blank">Isiah Thomas</a></strong> or <strong>Allen Iverson</strong>.</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="378"> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:e7aeb914-7ece-41ce-8357-cb10715a1c8f" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="077ae9e9-4a77-4f66-9426-bafea2c234e7" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufVhrLa0VgU&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6" target="_new"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm66HtE8xuI/AAAAAAAAB4c/A-tvcplaDQM/video4150a9d21a38%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('077ae9e9-4a77-4f66-9426-bafea2c234e7'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = &quot;&lt;div&gt;&lt;object width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=\&quot;movie\&quot; value=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/ufVhrLa0VgU&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/param&gt;&lt;embed src=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/ufVhrLa0VgU&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot; type=\&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash\&quot; width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/embed&gt;&lt;\/object&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;&quot;;" alt=""></a></div></div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300"> <p align="left"><strong><u><font color="#8000ff" size="4">Mr.Quick first step:</font></u></strong> These players rely less upon their top speed, and more on their quick trigger muscles. They utilize a series of triple threat moves (ball fakes, jab steps, etc), or nothing at all, to unnerve their defender. With a drop of a hat (or more often, with the batting of an eyelid) these players explode into decisive motion while their defender fails to react. Another, obvious, component of having a quick first step is having a long stride. Taller guards who have both quickness and length display this form of penetration beautifully. Naturally, <strong>Michael Jordan</strong> possessed both attributes and mastered the quick first step. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hheNm_GHWPk" target="_blank">Behold</a>! Today some of the best at this were guys who grew up and emulated <strong>Jordan’s</strong> move in their individual periods of basketball development: <strong>Vince Carter</strong> (think <strong><em>Toronto version</em></strong>), <strong>Tracy McGrady</strong> (think <strong><em>Orlando version</em></strong>) and yes, <strong>Kobe Bryant</strong>.</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="378"> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:5d4777ac-9b07-4b28-95e4-130aa828cb2c" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="120bb709-6308-4eb0-8b42-1046ccd43e3d" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hheNm_GHWPk&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6" target="_new"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm66IJT89cI/AAAAAAAAB4k/BIsopwpzhYY/videoaf532c634859%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('120bb709-6308-4eb0-8b42-1046ccd43e3d'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = &quot;&lt;div&gt;&lt;object width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=\&quot;movie\&quot; value=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/hheNm_GHWPk&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/param&gt;&lt;embed src=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/hheNm_GHWPk&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot; type=\&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash\&quot; width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/embed&gt;&lt;\/object&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;&quot;;" alt=""></a></div></div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300"> <p align="left"><strong><u><font color="#8000ff" size="4">The Pure Athlete:</font></u></strong> These guys aren’t top speed demons like <strong>Chris Paul</strong>, nor do they have all that it takes to be Quick first step artists . . . but they do possess some combination of the two, have ridiculous length and hops. It’s not that they have all the tools needed to get into the lane at any cost, but more of what they can do when they are in the lane that counts.<strong> Dr.J</strong> fits the bill here, same with guys like <strong>Dominique Wilkins</strong> and today’s versions: <strong>Andre I<b>guodala</b></strong>, <strong>Ronnie Brewer</strong> and <strong>Jason Richardson</strong>. After reviewing these types of players on <strong>YouTube</strong> I’ve come to the decision that everyone should watch this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl8Y6k16mgg" target="_blank">Top 10 video featuring just <strong>Scottie Pippen</strong> highlights</a> … not just because he proves my point, but because of the crazy music in the background.</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="378"> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:6f554d60-22bd-4d12-b5ba-58a37118a47e" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="bf5f7db7-441d-48a2-9b3b-11952f2811f1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl8Y6k16mgg&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6" target="_new"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm66IQ8fvKI/AAAAAAAAB4o/Nr7GjA-HzOQ/videocd7a843ceb7c%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('bf5f7db7-441d-48a2-9b3b-11952f2811f1'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = &quot;&lt;div&gt;&lt;object width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=\&quot;movie\&quot; value=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/wl8Y6k16mgg&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/param&gt;&lt;embed src=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/wl8Y6k16mgg&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot; type=\&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash\&quot; width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/embed&gt;&lt;\/object&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;&quot;;" alt=""></a></div></div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300"> <p align="left"><strong><u><font color="#8000ff" size="4">The Guy with all the Moves:</font></u></strong> Obviously at some stage, players can fit into more than one of these categories. Yes, a young <strong>Vince Carter</strong> had a great first step, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVXXDLWOCso&amp;NR=1" target="_blank">but let’s not forget that he was among the top 5 most athletic players in the history of the sport</a> as well; so a player like Vince could easily be placed in the <em>quick step</em> *or* <em>pure athlete</em> category. This is not what I mean when I say “guy with all the moves” though; while Vince is nice here, he’s not a true acrobat who drives the lane like an elusive running back: juking, spinning, side-stepping, hesitating his way to the goal line. </p> <p align="left">Some <strong>NBA players</strong> have mastered this form of penetration which allows them to use practiced talent and a learned skill to take them where others rely on purely physical abilities to go. Guys with all the moves do have to have speed, quickness and athletic ability as well, but these players string together a sequence of moves almost effortlessly – the only physical force these guys rely upon is momentum. (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ0PnOLKnY4&amp;feature=related" target="_blank">Like these kids in Russia displaying some of their parcour prowess: this video gets crazy at the 2:19 mark</a> – <em>watch at least 60 seconds of this video from that mark onwards, watch longer if you want to see this kid free run away from a dog in some guy’s private property</em>.) </p> <p align="left">Additionally, these players have the over-all best handles in the game that allows them to use their Running back/Parcour movement skills while still holding onto the ball. Guys with all the moves eventually get from Point A to Point B, even if it takes a Point C, D and E to get there first. You may be familiar with their go-to move . . . the <u><em>Crossover</em></u>. Examples of guys who have all the moves include Earl <strong>“The Pearl” Monroe</strong>, <strong>“Pistol” Pete Maravich</strong>, <strong>Dwyane Wade</strong>, <strong>Kobe Bryant</strong> and <a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Bedlam-09-Final-D-Will-s-crossover-vs-Darko-?urn=nba,153641" target="_blank">Ball Don’t Lie’s Bedlam ‘09 Tournament winner: <strong>Deron Williams</strong>.</a></p> </td> <td valign="top" width="378"> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:90331318-b7f0-4b4d-b631-9e94a9add60c" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="a6a2e6c1-8617-4132-a447-9ac78bc0e35a" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p52I1Oy-7M&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6" target="_new"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm66InTUoEI/AAAAAAAAB4s/TPsuwr-WPQU/video4f95f0a6b9d4%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('a6a2e6c1-8617-4132-a447-9ac78bc0e35a'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = &quot;&lt;div&gt;&lt;object width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=\&quot;movie\&quot; value=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/8p52I1Oy-7M&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/param&gt;&lt;embed src=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/8p52I1Oy-7M&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot; type=\&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash\&quot; width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/embed&gt;&lt;\/object&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;&quot;;" alt=""></a></div></div></div> <br /> <br /> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:03dca547-19e8-42f9-b705-9ef56a6a6aa9" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="afac6108-66d2-4d27-9c6d-e6c09f698cc0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MN8JTYGDP8&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6" target="_new"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm66IyMfN3I/AAAAAAAAB44/qHiBXImk86E/videoa0405c79c95a%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('afac6108-66d2-4d27-9c6d-e6c09f698cc0'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = &quot;&lt;div&gt;&lt;object width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=\&quot;movie\&quot; value=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/8MN8JTYGDP8&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/param&gt;&lt;embed src=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/8MN8JTYGDP8&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot; type=\&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash\&quot; width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/embed&gt;&lt;\/object&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;&quot;;" alt=""></a></div></div></div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p>While this post was mostly to categorize the different types of ways guards get into the lane, I kind of wanted to touch on how bigger guys get there (<em>and the chance to post a few more links to videos</em>). </p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="678" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300"> <p align="left"><font size="4"><font color="#8000ff"><strong><u>The Freight Train</u></strong>:</font></font> For the majority of these guard type movement skills, strength is an afterthought. Pure Athletes and some guys with all the moves do need strength to finish the plays they start. But they are a far cry for how forwards and centers start, follow through, and finish plays with strength. Some of these hulks take the concept of momentum to a whole new level as they plow through the lane, dispassionately going through anyone in their way. Not only are these guys big, but they are all also great at running the floor – regardless of their size.</p> <p align="left"> We’ve all seen that <strong>Charles Barkley</strong> clip where he has a full head of steam and goes coast to coast for a two hander where his momentum swings him around the entire basket support system. (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_yfqippMpA&amp;feature=fvw" target="_blank">1:56 in this 10 minute video</a>) This is a prime example of the Freight Train. Other players we can easily include in this category are <strong>Karl Malone</strong>, <strong>Amar</strong>é<strong> Stoudemire</strong> and, of course, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja4jAlYhzJA&amp;feature=fvw" target="_blank">LeBron James</a>.</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="376"> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:91b9f53b-1645-413c-9f6a-84509cde74a5" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="067475e0-464c-4492-a516-f6af8fb6a43b" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja4jAlYhzJA&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6" target="_new"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm66JJUaYQI/AAAAAAAAB48/LfMRL64HLX8/videoa28df283fe17%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('067475e0-464c-4492-a516-f6af8fb6a43b'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = &quot;&lt;div&gt;&lt;object width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=\&quot;movie\&quot; value=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/Ja4jAlYhzJA&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/param&gt;&lt;embed src=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/Ja4jAlYhzJA&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot; type=\&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash\&quot; width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/embed&gt;&lt;\/object&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;&quot;;" alt=""></a></div></div></div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="678" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300"> <p align="left"><strong><u><font color="#8000ff" size="4">The Black Tornado (only one player ever):</font></u></strong> Someone like <strong>Vince</strong>, <strong>Jordan</strong>, <strong>T-Mac</strong> or <strong>Wade</strong> may defy the laws of gravity. That’s nice. They are able to bend the rules of the natural world to pull off extraordinary moves. </p> <p align="left">Other guys are forces of nature altogether. You don’t need to bend any rules when you make the rules. <strong>Shaquille O’Neal</strong> took pity on our world, and self-banned this move which he called “<strong>The Black Tornado</strong>” – a move that he himself agreed was “<em>illegal</em>.” <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLDXw5lC-LM" target="_blank">Take cover below</a>!</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="376"> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:037094e9-eaa5-49e6-9056-b61159ab2331" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="ca56f0c8-9c71-4842-b1d2-0227451b898c" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLDXw5lC-LM&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6" target="_new"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm66JSKDuII/AAAAAAAAB5E/2dtoiCyG8SQ/videof95c3cf05dc2%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('ca56f0c8-9c71-4842-b1d2-0227451b898c'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = &quot;&lt;div&gt;&lt;object width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=\&quot;movie\&quot; value=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/JLDXw5lC-LM&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/param&gt;&lt;embed src=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/JLDXw5lC-LM&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot; type=\&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash\&quot; width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/embed&gt;&lt;\/object&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;&quot;;" alt=""></a></div></div></div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p>It is only natural that players of different sizes, speeds, talents and ability would evolve different ways of getting into the lane. Penetration is usually the initiation of good things on offense, as players create advantageous passing angles, draw in defenders, or just plan dunk it on people themselves. Take notice of this, and enjoy these categories as you watch the upcoming season!</p> <p><strong><u>EDIT: I completely forgot this category:</u></strong></p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="677" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300"> <p align="left"><strong><u><font color="#8000ff" size="4">The guy who does not look pretty dribbling, but makes amazing passes:</font></u></strong> Sometimes God gives you seemingly conflicting gifts. For one, you could be 6’9 and a great passer. Unfortunately for you, you are so tall that in order for you to dribble the ball effectively, yet not actually leave it wide open to get stolen from you, you have a really ugly dribble. Not every big guy who dribbles does it poorly, <strong>Lamar Odom</strong> has a very nice looking dribble and has a great handle with the ball. <strong>Magic Johnson</strong> also had a great handle on the ball, but he really had to pound the heck out of the ball to make sure it got back up to him fast enough that the guys who defended him (big time steals guys like <strong>Isiah Thomas</strong>, <strong>Alvin</strong> <strong>Robertson</strong>, <strong>Mo Cheeks</strong>, <strong>John Stockton</strong>, etc) did not pick his pocket each time down the floor. It was far from the prettiest dribble in the half-court set. </p> <p align="left">The modern player who immediately comes to mind when I think of guys who pass well, but don’t look like they can dribble at all is <strong>Andrei</strong> <strong>Kirilenko</strong>. This is a guy who has played point guard internationally and in the 2nd round of the <strong>NBA Playoffs</strong> – yet <strong>Jazz</strong> fans cringe whenever he drives to the basket. We don’t trust his dribbling skills at all – yet he does some really amazing things with the ball on occasion (not unlike <strong>Magic</strong>) with passes: through defenders legs (can’t find the vid of him doing this to <strong>Bosh</strong>); <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAN9KdZYAwg&amp;feature=related" target="_blank">behind the back passes</a>; no look passes (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ezhPqpTSFQ" target="_blank">0:26</a>); over the shoulder on a fast break (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ezhPqpTSFQ" target="_blank">0:43</a>); spinning through the lane (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIV76od0oTo" target="_blank">2:11</a>); <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ezhPqpTSFQ" target="_blank">on the run in traffic with no eye-contact with any of your teammates passes</a>; <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s-Qhg7hjd8&amp;feature=related" target="_blank">passes through his OWN legs</a>; and so forth. Very good passer, and very creative player – <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKMmbyMHJWE&amp;feature=related" target="_blank">he just looks like he’s murdering a goose</a> when he dribbles. (really, the video to the left is a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T7-fa9ze-A&amp;feature=related" target="_blank">mixtape which starts out with him dribbling off his foot, and his goose killing continues at the 0:20 mark</a>!)</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="375"> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:c49c1928-3fde-4c4e-8799-f63379646d62" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="423ffbe3-4b61-43d4-8195-3b8407983a57" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T7-fa9ze-A&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6" target="_new"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sm7CWMwudbI/AAAAAAAAB5I/r-WaPP-lJT0/video042241569dc2%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('423ffbe3-4b61-43d4-8195-3b8407983a57'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = &quot;&lt;div&gt;&lt;object width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=\&quot;movie\&quot; value=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/0T7-fa9ze-A&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/param&gt;&lt;embed src=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/0T7-fa9ze-A&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot; type=\&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash\&quot; width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/embed&gt;&lt;\/object&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;&quot;;" alt=""></a></div></div></div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-33406543859020670142009-07-26T18:27:00.001-04:002009-07-26T18:27:49.379-04:00Rethinking Go Rating<p>I find that some tweaks are in order . . . <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/07/these-arent-john-hollingers-dads.html">so I’m re-working some of the numbers</a>. This has caused a delay in the big tables of <strong>Go Ratings (</strong>that we’ll use for frames of reference down the line).</p> <ul> <li>I’m rethinking the issue of using 77% (numerically, .770) as the baseline for<strong> Free Throws</strong>. Over the last 20 years the league average has not been 77%, and it normalizes more towards 75% (.750). As a result I’m probably going to change the formula accordingly.</li> <li>Similarly, I think that my baseline for <strong>Assist:Turnovers</strong> really hurts non-passing specialists too much. Not everyone in the league is an awesome ball handler . . . yet they are still capable of making good enough passes to keep the defense honest. The point of Go was to see how much pressure a single player put on the defense. Turnovers are already another step of the equation as it is. Putting the base line from 1.48 down towards 1.25 isn’t going to shake things up too much. Good passers will still be good – but now more forwards will not be HURT for attempting to pass out of the post.</li> <li>The number for <strong>Offensive Rebounds</strong> (0.2673) was taken from the current league average, though this is like the FT% number . . . and does not stand through the test of time. Heck, the “proper” number for the 1984-1985 season was closer to 30%, which would cause havoc with today’s style of play. This number needs more work to find balance.</li> <li>Lastly, with <strong>Shooting</strong> I don’t think the last part of the equation should be “total points / 10”, that’s not good enough as points is a total crapshoot sometimes – obviously the guys who shoot the ball more or play more minutes will look better because of this.</li> </ul> <p>So . . . hold tight stat-a-roos, I’m going back to the work book to figure this one out.</p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-51261436655031874392009-07-26T16:53:00.001-04:002009-07-26T16:57:25.343-04:00USA Basketball scrimmage pictures! Woo!<p>Here are some of the (<strong>jazz related</strong>) pictures from the scrimmage featuring <strong>Kyle Korver</strong>, <strong>Paul Mil$ap</strong> and <strong>Ronnie Brewer</strong> (and coach <strong>Ty Corbin</strong> too!). All the pictures were photographed by <strong>Andrew D. Bernstien for NBAE/Getty Images</strong>.</p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="673" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCHKD5dgI/AAAAAAAAB14/bzdG6OtmKsM/s1600-h/b8c62b7fd185050fc3a0eb49149f527e-getty-89079148ab001_usab_showcase%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Team Photo" border="0" alt="Team Photo" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCHVboJjI/AAAAAAAAB18/VTQ_hPsCC84/b8c62b7fd185050fc3a0eb49149f527e-getty-89079148ab001_usab_showcase_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="271" /></a> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left">Here is the team picture (L to R): Bottom row is <strong>Paul Millsap</strong>; Top row is <strong>Kyle</strong> <strong>Korver</strong>, <strong>Ronnie Brewer</strong> and <strong>Tyrone</strong> <strong>Corbin</strong>.</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCHtXfahI/AAAAAAAAB2A/TI_J7aaRtF8/s1600-h/1ec8b050c17557d1f1a5c728acf38c66-getty-89079148ab036_usab_showcase%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Thad" border="0" alt="Thad" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCIDaY9fI/AAAAAAAAB2E/fBHf4LrmULw/1ec8b050c17557d1f1a5c728acf38c66-getty-89079148ab036_usab_showcase_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="608" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left"><strong>Kyle</strong> is on offense, and at half court here. Great job <strong>Kyle</strong>!</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCIWT7vQI/AAAAAAAAB2I/ucFtye7W-gQ/s1600-h/3ca669e739fc5377a2a16889ca22996a-getty-89079148ab014_usab_showcase%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="A. Randolph" border="0" alt="A. Randolph" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCIqbdw1I/AAAAAAAAB2M/8zF5sIfzAX4/3ca669e739fc5377a2a16889ca22996a-getty-89079148ab014_usab_showcase_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="604" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left">Here <strong>Millsap</strong> watches <strong>Anthony Randolph </strong>throw it down</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCIzC1-dI/AAAAAAAAB2Q/dfNlovtobWs/s1600-h/4c24ace38d39c50edf213b19b760fef5-getty-89079148ab006_usab_minicamp%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Jokes" border="0" alt="Jokes" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCJC4I0TI/AAAAAAAAB2U/FbgCW6R2TQM/4c24ace38d39c50edf213b19b760fef5-getty-89079148ab006_usab_minicamp_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="271" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left"><strong>Kyle</strong> jokes with <strong>Thad Young</strong> and business casual friday guy.</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCJi6VARI/AAAAAAAAB2Y/AIAJElZOJ5A/s1600-h/5c0d7cf1ba9820346ae88e185705e0a9-getty-89079148ab020_usab_minicamp%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Dont want to make you look bad so I will pass" border="0" alt="Dont want to make you look bad so I will pass" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCJ8SO5GI/AAAAAAAAB2c/jnGAaw9P3hQ/5c0d7cf1ba9820346ae88e185705e0a9-getty-89079148ab020_usab_minicamp_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="604" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left">Here <strong>Kyle</strong> defends <strong>Ronnie Brewer</strong>, uh-oh, <strong>Kyle</strong> is on you . . . you better look to pass!</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCKuBSLYI/AAAAAAAAB2g/_JMgMHZrR4E/s1600-h/6e4493833e614c7ed9558ae89af91176-getty-89079148ab023_usab_minicamp%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="rest" border="0" alt="rest" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCK2SklPI/AAAAAAAAB2k/oji3GZ1FccY/6e4493833e614c7ed9558ae89af91176-getty-89079148ab023_usab_minicamp_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="271" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left"><strong>Brewer</strong> and <strong>Millsap</strong> take a breather</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCLDkglrI/AAAAAAAAB2o/P1Eip6YcUqs/s1600-h/09ac5c540c3feddbfbaaf43e5e3f8eb9-getty-89079148ab031_usab_showcase%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Mic" border="0" alt="Mic" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCLW83xJI/AAAAAAAAB2s/Ibu0JkLZsEU/09ac5c540c3feddbfbaaf43e5e3f8eb9-getty-89079148ab031_usab_showcase_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="604" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left"><strong>Durant</strong> talks while <strong>Brewer</strong> mentally constructs new ways to defend him</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCL_piLNI/AAAAAAAAB2w/QzGoN5pnyXE/s1600-h/80b9aa36d1443b522b4aa0f5bf57371b-getty-89079148ab026_usab_showcase%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Thad" border="0" alt="Thad" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCMOW2OgI/AAAAAAAAB20/VcvX9TevSPM/80b9aa36d1443b522b4aa0f5bf57371b-getty-89079148ab026_usab_showcase_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="604" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left">What does this picture have to do with the <strong>Jazz</strong>? Oh yeah, <strong>Kyle</strong> is in it waaaay in the back. <strong>Great job Kyle</strong>! Keep it up!</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCMbmTNNI/AAAAAAAAB24/z9IQcOdW3Fs/s1600-h/610e26bab664f5f3b12f9e0f2fdb9ff8-getty-89079148ab028_usab_showcase%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Air Brewer" border="0" alt="Air Brewer" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCMmnQFPI/AAAAAAAAB28/mLMTYKRLmqM/610e26bab664f5f3b12f9e0f2fdb9ff8-getty-89079148ab028_usab_showcase_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="604" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left"><strong>Brewer</strong> makes airspace to dunk on <strong>Durant</strong></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCMzMZN6I/AAAAAAAAB3A/MfinUv4ItMM/s1600-h/292112fe8fc5278edba888738ae9707f-getty-89079148ab024_usab_showcase%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Love me tender" border="0" alt="Love me tender" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCNToagiI/AAAAAAAAB3E/o_wkCVDn05Y/292112fe8fc5278edba888738ae9707f-getty-89079148ab024_usab_showcase_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="604" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left"><strong>Kevin Love</strong> dunks on <strong>Millsap</strong></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCNgE396I/AAAAAAAAB3I/nM__IcrQcWk/s1600-h/370932bb49c083fefd00b610248bf364-getty-89079148ab014_usab_minicamp%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Love me true" border="0" alt="Love me true" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCNxoNJSI/AAAAAAAAB3M/5Ku9S-oJI4w/370932bb49c083fefd00b610248bf364-getty-89079148ab014_usab_minicamp_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="604" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left">Here the two are going for the same rebound . . . but obviously looking at two different things. I wonder who got the rebound . . .</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCOL3EVPI/AAAAAAAAB3Q/USrUBG1EV1k/s1600-h/a47724addb89a7292d10f2073783d2bb-getty-89079148ab019_usab_showcase%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Air Brewer again" border="0" alt="Air Brewer again" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCOb9YJ8I/AAAAAAAAB3U/2mpvJ-hTU7c/a47724addb89a7292d10f2073783d2bb-getty-89079148ab019_usab_showcase_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="604" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left"><strong>Brewer</strong> skies in for two more!</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCOhp-oHI/AAAAAAAAB3Y/pFLbY-qjg3E/s1600-h/b8ed02a9d033b1e751c6b2bd0190006a-getty-89079148ab032_usab_showcase%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Kyle in stealth mode" border="0" alt="Kyle in stealth mode" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCO6fLfLI/AAAAAAAAB3c/MEASSklRkCI/b8ed02a9d033b1e751c6b2bd0190006a-getty-89079148ab032_usab_showcase_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="604" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left">Okay <strong>Amar</strong>, now really! What does this have to do with the <strong>Jazz</strong>? Ah yes, <strong>Korver</strong> is behind <strong>Westbrook</strong> (foreground) in the center of the picture, in stealth mode.</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCPBAVWrI/AAAAAAAAB3g/e2FiZD2aqpg/s1600-h/b35d99451fe72ef41e9e83f4d0d297cb-getty-89079148ab030_usab_showcase%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Ty does not care for your conversation" border="0" alt="Ty does not care for your conversation" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCPus3YJI/AAAAAAAAB3k/uoAt3pEmnDA/b35d99451fe72ef41e9e83f4d0d297cb-getty-89079148ab030_usab_showcase_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="604" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left">And <strong>Tyrone</strong> is over near a cheerleader on the right hand side.</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCP5iYoEI/AAAAAAAAB3o/-Cen7ND93IQ/s1600-h/c85d59ff78f40081105d797de040b95b-getty-89079148ab029_usab_minicamp%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="That&#39;s one tall kid, if Kyle is 6&#39;7" border="0" alt="That&#39;s one tall kid, if Kyle is 6&#39;7" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCQk3EC4I/AAAAAAAAB3s/ZH2GH9eV5Pg/c85d59ff78f40081105d797de040b95b-getty-89079148ab029_usab_minicamp_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="604" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left">It was business as usual after the game for <strong>Kyle</strong>, who seems to be moving into the <strong>Kevin Costner</strong> period of his career.</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCQxjdSwI/AAAAAAAAB3w/S9i-7iniVCw/s1600-h/f4ecc3deed1e069d13b5cbf8f5bc998a-getty-89079148ab016_usab_minicamp%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="I&#39;m open . . . for the love of God I&#39;m open" border="0" alt="I&#39;m open . . . for the love of God I&#39;m open" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCRfozF6I/AAAAAAAAB30/QMmqPc97DBI/f4ecc3deed1e069d13b5cbf8f5bc998a-getty-89079148ab016_usab_minicamp_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="271" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left"><strong>Thad Young</strong> is trapped behind the basket and <strong>Millsap</strong> is looking for a pass -- ‘<strong>Sap</strong>, that pass isn’t going to come, Young is going to shoot this. It was that kind of camp for <strong>Millsap</strong> – it seems.</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCRTCxF8I/AAAAAAAAB34/pog_LoSUb7c/s1600-h/f11e930bbc086e7627a9754cb978f82e-getty-89079148ab027_usab_showcase%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="the juice" border="0" alt="the juice" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmzCRy8QJwI/AAAAAAAAB38/5LKCJ_iAsn8/f11e930bbc086e7627a9754cb978f82e-getty-89079148ab027_usab_showcase_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="404" height="604" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="471"> <p align="left">Let’s finish this with some <strong>OJ</strong> going up and over some <strong>Korver</strong> defense! <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ2HcRl4wSk" target="_blank">You can do it!</a> Go <strong>JAZZ</strong>!</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-46689207587985909072009-07-18T06:36:00.001-04:002009-07-18T07:10:21.774-04:00These aren’t John Hollinger’s dad’s statistics<p>Okay, I love direct observational research as much as the other guy, but as someone firmly rooted in the sciences (aka. wasting my life in college and beyond), I love quantifiable results. As a result, I find that statistics are vital towards observing, categorizing and understanding the environment that we inhabit (and share with other organisms). Stats are awesome, and I love them (<a href="http://patrickstack.com/images/2008/04/a-winner-is-you1.gif" target="_blank">I got 98% in stats in university</a>) . Though, I know that stats can be manipulated and abused – furthermore, statistics do not fully explain the entire situation, nor do sufficient statistics exist that can approach a full knowledge of a hybrid (<em>not just numerical</em>) system.</p> <p>We can attempt to use statistics to better understand basketball – and as a fan, <em>and non-paid analyst</em>, I’m not alone in this point of view (<em>just check out</em> <a href="http://dberri.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">the Wages of Wins</a> <em>sometime</em>). That said, the statistics that we currently have in basketball are not complete. No current stats exist to fully describe all possible positive actions on the court (e.g. there’s no stat for a defender breaking / slipping a screen and staying on his man, despite the set play run by the offense). Also, some stats that would be useful are just not recorded in the <strong>NBA</strong> (e.g. in the <strong>Adriatic league</strong> their stats also include things like how many times a player has their shot blocked, or how many times a player draws a foul – don’t you want to know how many times <strong>Dirk</strong> gets stuffed, or how many fouls <strong>Shaq</strong> drew per game during his peak?).</p> <p>Right now there aren’t enough stats to fully map out good play, and some of the stats that we do have appear to mean more than they actually do! A steal means that a defender has disrupted the offense to the point that a turnover has occurred – many guards and swingmen get steals. The bigman analog has always been blocks, but the most important part of the steal (aka, the change of actual possession of the ball) is lost in a block. Often a blocked shot prevents a made basket, but does not always give possession back to the defending side. In effect, a blocked shot that still gives the ball back to the offense is no better than a defender causing a deflection of a pass where the ball goes out of bounds – and the offensive team retains possession. </p> <p>Deflections are the most important stat that continues to not be officially counted by the <strong>NBA;</strong> on one hand it would be difficult to adjudicate (when is it a block? when is it a deflection?), but on the other hand, deflections often lead to other stats. The guy who picks up a ball that’s deflected out of the hand of the ball carrier is rewarded with a steal – but the guy who got the ball out of the ball carrier’s hand (the deflector) doesn’t get credited for causing the play. I think that’s kind of unfair.</p> <p>In fact the guy who defends well frequently gets jobbed out of a good stat. For years I’ve seen a solid defensive play in the paint by a <strong>center</strong> (straight up single coverage that results in his man taking a shot – and missing) be recorded as a <strong>GREAT defensive</strong> board by the <strong>power forward</strong> (who wasn’t defending anyone, he just happened to get the rebound off of someone else's good defense). I’ve seen this happen on all levels of play. If anything, it prove the limitations of stats, and the limitations of the stats to accurately reward defense.</p> <p>It’s no secret that defense is way harder to grade by using stats alone. Firstly, there are not enough defensive stats (like the guy who can navigate through a number screens and gets back in time to contest/change a shot gets the same amount of stats as another play who doesn’t even go through the screens and lets his man take an open jumper), and secondly, the stats that do exist do not always mean great defense. A very quick guy like <strong>Allen Iverson</strong> spent years on the court playing in the passing lanes. This is him gambling on defense to get steals. It’s exciting when a guy does get those break away steals in the game – but it’s not sound, fundamental man defense. Really, this play is sorely discouraged in the case where there isn’t a big shot blocker in the paint to clean up any mess that an unguarded PG getting into the paint can cause. </p> <p>I know – I’ve seen <strong>John Stockton</strong> make these same type of ‘<strong>Defensive Back’ style</strong> steals because he had big <strong>Mark Eaton</strong> (two time defensive player of the year – once had close to 500 blocks in a season) watching his back. <strong>Iverson</strong> had the same with <strong>Theo</strong> <strong>Ratliff</strong> and <strong>Dikembe Mutombo</strong>. <strong>Chris Paul</strong> is another player who benefits from being backed up by shot blocking force of nature <strong>Tyson Chandler</strong>. If guys like <strong>Stockton</strong>, <strong>Iverson</strong> and <strong>Paul</strong> had <strong>Mehmet Okur</strong> and<strong> Jarron Collins</strong> laying down the law in the paint behind them you can be sure that the <strong>head coach</strong> would have told them to defend their man more, and gamble on defense less.</p> <p>Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to coach some basketball on the youth developmental level. We tried to go past the lack of collected stats on defense in order to quantify good play on both sides of the ball. An attempt was made to count the number of times the player defending a shooter resulted in that shooter missing. Other times we tried to record good traps on the ball carrier, or how many times the defender harassed the ball handler into turning the ball over. These types of things can be recorded but by far the best defense I’ve ever seen on any level is that where the man being defended does not ever get the ball, entry passes are denied, position is denied, and when he does get the ball – he’s in such a disadvantageous point that he cannot positively help his team when he has the ball. You know what kind of stats that guy gets – for playing the best defense? He gets nothing for it. There is no reward for him that shows up on the boxcore – and this is a failure in terms of statistics being used to categorize and enumerate good play in a game. But if he manages to tip an errantly passed ball that he forces the guy he’s defending into attempting(because he can’t shoot it where he is), the team mate who picks up the ball gets credited for a steal.</p> <p>Oh yeah, that’s basically it for defense in the <strong>NBA</strong>, I talked about the fallacy that defensive boards is akin to good defense, I talked about how blocks may stop a shot, but do not give you possession of the ball all that time, and I talked about how steals can be indicative of poor defense, not good defense. (Of course, exceptions to these rules always exist – it is good defense to control a tough defensive rebound that’s contested, or to block a shot to a team mate, or to single handedly strip a guy that&#160; you are defending. But let’s not forget that these instances of good defense are counted just as much as the same stats that are products of situational defense. A ball that rolls do you on defense counts just like a ball that you fought for.)</p> <p>The long and short of it is that we need more stats – especially on defense. If you’ve read this far down then you are awesome . . . because I’ve tried to make some ‘new’ stats. Some people are good enough for simple points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. That’s fine for a casual fantasy basketball league . . . but not good enough if you really watch the game like your life depends on it. I wish there were more stats, and more ways to reward good play – but right now the NBA does not appear to give us things like that (instead the +/- stat is thrown to us, like it means anything). Anyway, I’ve tried to make some new stats and here are five calculations that you can even do at home (<em>studio audience of old ladies says ‘ooooohh’, already put in a receptive mood because of the deal that they got on that juicer they just purchased</em>):</p> <p><strong><u><em><font color="#0080ff" size="4">1. Defensive Gambling (DG):</font></em></u></strong> This stat is pretty easy – I try to recognize that some of the stats that people get on defense are related to gambling on some level. (Gambling in a passing lane, gambling by leaving your man to get a weak side shot block, gambling by trying to strip a man when the ref is right there, and so forth) We already had <strong>blocks</strong> and <strong>steals</strong> . . . but they exist in a world without accumulated <strong>risks</strong>. The risk here, of course, exists as a <strong>foul</strong> being called – another stat that we already have. The fun part is balancing the<strong> risks vs. the rewards</strong>. </p> <p>The <strong>Foul</strong> is the base for this equation – as it means that you tried a risky move and you got burned. Not only do you have a penalty against you, but it directly benefits the offensive team. A <strong>steal</strong>, on the other hand, is a situation where a player takes a risk, is rewarded – and the offensive team is directly disadvantaged. When a team misses a three pointer and the opposing team gets the ball and scores a layup that is a 5 point swing. A <strong>steal</strong> does not directly mean you gain points, but you directly prevent the chance of points – it’s not a 5 point swing, but it’s a possession swing. I say that this is worth <strong>1.5 fouls</strong>, in terms of risk/reward. A block does not guarantee such a similar swing in terms of possession (it does sometimes though), but while a steal only prevents the potential of a shot being taken, a block directly affects shots that are taken. (<em>It’s a shame there’s no stat for shots changed, because a good shot blocker has an aura that surrounds him that changes many shots – for example when players started to scout <strong>Kirilenko</strong> his blocks went way down . . . but he was changing the same number of net shots as guys changed their shots to avoid getting blocked by him</em>) A block, then, is not as good as a steal, but it’s still good – a block is equal to 1.3 fouls. The full equation for Defensive Gambling is as follows:</p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="446" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="444"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlhEplYkI/AAAAAAAAB0I/_UzfHJkzWBE/s1600-h/StatFormulaDefensiveGambling4.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="Stat Formula -- Defensive Gambling" border="0" alt="Stat Formula -- Defensive Gambling" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlha6yiKI/AAAAAAAAB0M/xiiTyFSclmY/StatFormulaDefensiveGambling_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="644" height="133" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="444"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="679"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="176"><strong><em><u><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlhsIxmGI/AAAAAAAAB0Q/a_QrVfGiJDU/s1600-h/DSC_0259_1.sized6.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" title="Clean block on Kobe - the Ultimate Risk vs Reward" border="0" alt="Clean block on Kobe - the Ultimate Risk vs Reward" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGli7QlXII/AAAAAAAAB0U/0f9MxSZcEWg/DSC_0259_1.sized_thumb4.jpg?imgmax=800" width="319" height="484" /></a></u></em></strong></td> <td valign="top" width="501"> <p align="left"><strong><em><u>Example</u></em></strong>: In <strong>2003-2004 Andrei Kirilekno</strong> was healthy (at this point in his career, he had played in 240 of a total possible 246 games), getting playing time (37.1 mpg), and happy. That season <strong>Andrei</strong> had 215 blocked shots and 150 steals against 174 fouls. His <strong>Defensive Gambling</strong> score was astronomical that season. </p> <p align="left">DG = [ ( 215 * 1.3) + (150 * 1.5) ] / 174</p> <p align="left">DG = [ 279.5 + 225 ] / 174</p> <p align="left">DG = 3.002893563</p> <p align="left">So that means that <strong>Andrei</strong> was gambling at a very fortuitous rate – he’d get away with gambling three times before he would get burned once. If you extrapolate that to how many fouls he averaged per game that season you can see that he was doing something right with all that time on the court. Because the haters probably want to know, <strong>Andrei’s</strong> career average <strong>DG score is 2.25</strong>. For a point of reference, <strong>Scottie Pippen’s</strong> career<strong> DG score is 1.41</strong> – and <strong>Pip</strong> is the prototypical wing defender who made <strong>10 All-Defensive teams</strong> in his career. <strong>Pippen</strong> had way more steals, but he took way too many poor gambles as well. <strong>Pippen</strong> has 6 seasons where he’s averaged greater than 3 fouls per game. <strong>Andrei</strong> has none in his career.<em> So put that in your pipe and smoke it!</em></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p align="left">Clearly looking at things like blocks and steals on their own gives a skewed view of the world – putting it against a <strong>risk/reward</strong> system is a better frame of reference that we can use to see which players make smart gambles, and which ones do not. <strong>Andrei</strong> – <em>for all his faults</em> – has a good <strong>Defensive Gambling ability</strong> if you ask me.</p> <p><strong><em><u><font color="#0080ff" size="4">2. Pure Hustle (PH):</font></u></em></strong> Pure hustle builds off of the <strong>Defensive Gambling equation</strong>, but adds more chances for risks and more chances for rewards. Here we see Blocks, Steals and Offensive Rebounds go against Turnovers and Persona Fouls. The common factor for hustle is a turn over. It’s the most benign result of hustle. Too much hustle can result in a foul – which hurts you and your team. This is why a foul is worth more. On the good side of things, hustle can result in good defense, or a second effort (or third, or fourth) on offense. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1ob8mNDcNk" target="_blank">We all remember <strong>Tayshawn Prince</strong> robbing<strong> Reggie Miller</strong> with a game winning block</a>. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_RJ5XN8TK8" target="_blank">We should all remember Bird stealing the inbounds from Isiah</a>. And we all know that second chance shots can not only allow you to score from an advantageous position – but also result in scores themselves. This is why I think when it comes to hustle, Offensive Rebounds are worth the most, with Blocks and Steals being on equal footing with fouls.</p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="567" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="565"> <p align="left"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGljKmxtLI/AAAAAAAAB0Y/LlYKn7_nlDA/s1600-h/StatFormulaPureHustle5.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: 0px" title="Stat Formula -- Pure Hustle" border="0" alt="Stat Formula -- Pure Hustle" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGljeW4gLI/AAAAAAAAB0c/mb9r_1pVWLQ/StatFormulaPureHustle_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="644" height="106" /></a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="565"> <div align="left"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="675" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="199"> <p align="center"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGljvXBYpI/AAAAAAAAB0g/2zxI_tMAFQs/s1600-h/KDETP19877.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" title="Hustle before he went crazy" border="0" alt="Hustle before he went crazy" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlj48uULI/AAAAAAAAB0k/p9RTFysGuaw/KDETP1987_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="186" height="283" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="474"> <p align="left"><strong><u><em>Example</em></u></strong>: When people think of hustle they are apt to think of garbage guys who don’t have much skill. That type of scrappy play can result in solid contributions for a team, but I think hustle is more than just effort. Hustle is assisted by skill and psychology. It is a risk/reward equation after all – if you go all out all the time you’re just going to pick up fouls. You have to know when to go all out, and when to hold back. Many people hated him, but no one could deny the <strong>Pure Hustle</strong> of <strong>Dennis Rodman</strong>. <strong>Rodman</strong> has 4329 career <strong>Offensive Rebounds</strong>, 611 career <strong>Steals</strong> and 531 career <strong>Blocks</strong>. They aren’t the best numbers around, but when you input them with his 1481 career <strong>turnovers</strong> and 2843 career <strong>fouls</strong> he manages a <strong>Pure Hustle</strong> <strong>rating of 1.80</strong>. </p> <p align="left">This may not look like much, but for a frame of reference, <strong>Paul Millsap</strong> (what most current <strong>Jazz fans</strong> think <strong>Pure Hustle</strong> is all about) has managed a career <strong>Pure Hustle value of 1.24</strong>. So if <strong>Paul Millsap</strong> is giving 110% out there, <strong>Dennis Rodman</strong> is giving 155% out there.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p>&#160;<strong><u><em><font color="#0080ff" size="4">3. Shooting Worth (SW):</font></em></u></strong> This is an easy one, because it already exists on many website by it’s other name “<strong>Points per Shot” (PPS</strong>). It’s just how many total points you get (including free throws) divided by the number of shots (FGA) you take. Sure, there’s some <strong>points</strong> that may be unrepresented by <strong>FGA</strong> (like technical fouls, or being in the bonus), but the fact that the player is involved in those free throws is a benefit that they get for being good shooters. The idea is that if you take a shot it’s worth two points, right? Well, that doesn’t always work out in the PROs, and the league average (or mean for all player data) is 1.22. [Yes, I looked at every shot in the L last year on ESPN.com] So, in effect, you have a positive <strong>Shooting Worth</strong> if you are better than average, and have a <strong>SW greater than 1.22</strong> – of course, you can still be good at your job if you have a lower value; you’d just be below league average. That’s the crux of this statistic – it seems to display individuals who take good shots, and this stat can be used to better differentiate between guys who score a high ppg who take good shots, or the guys who shoot a lot in order to get good stats.</p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="602" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="600"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlkNs6TmI/AAAAAAAAB0o/Q9Ql0J5hhDs/s1600-h/StatFormulaShootingWorth3.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="Stat Formula -- Shooting Worth" border="0" alt="Stat Formula -- Shooting Worth" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlkQm55hI/AAAAAAAAB0s/webNSpkhRgc/StatFormulaShootingWorth_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" width="644" height="82" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="600"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="653"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlkstPMTI/AAAAAAAAB0w/ohMs3t8j6Vk/s1600-h/IversonoverLue2.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="Superstar or Average shooter?" border="0" alt="Superstar or Average shooter?" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlkxJGG1I/AAAAAAAAB00/2HRAhVbrI-I/IversonoverLue_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a> </td> <td valign="top" width="451"> <p align="left"><strong><em><u>Example</u></em></strong>: <strong>Allen Iverson</strong> has been a phenomenal scorer in his career. He’s averaged over 30 ppg on four separate occasions, and even with his no-show last year his career average is still 27.1 ppg. That’s a really great average, but how does that really stack up against a guy who averages something similar, but shoots much better than 42.5 fg%? Well, when you input <strong>Iverson's</strong> 23983 total career points over his 19,590 total shots you see that his actual <strong>Shooting Worth is 1.22</strong> – <u><em>which is exactly average</em></u>. He’s not a “<strong>better</strong>” scorer than some of his contemporaries, he’s just a volume scorer. <strong>Karl Malone</strong> only has a career scoring average that’s in the 25 points per game range – but unlike <strong>Ivey</strong>, <strong>Karl</strong> was much better than average when it came to the quality of his shots; <strong>Karl’s Shooting Worth was 1.41</strong> (better than lots of other known scorers like <strong>Kobe</strong>, <strong>Jerry West</strong> and <strong>Glen Rice</strong>, to name a few). From this we can conclude that a shot by <strong>Allen Iverson</strong> was, in effect, worth less than a shot by <strong>Karl</strong> – <strong>Karl</strong> was taking better shots.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p align="left">&#160;<strong><u><em><font color="#0080ff" size="4">4. Shot Frequency (SF):</font></em></u></strong> Some websites try to find out often a player shoots and they represent it by the number of shots / value of time (usually minutes). I don’t know what 0.282 shots looks like, so that representation means little to me. I would rather look at the same data in another way, namely, how many minutes of burn does a player need before he jacks up a shot. Some guys start shooting the ball as soon as they are on the court, while others spend a lot of time on the court – but don’t shoot the ball. In effect, this stat (Shot Frequency) will be able to identify if a certain player is gun shy to a fault (some would say that John Stockton was) or a pure, unashamed jacker of shots (too many to name). In this case, the lower the number means a higher frequency of shots . . . because the number represented is the time needed on the floor between shots. To find this out we divide the total minutes played by the number of Field Goals attempted (FGA).</p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="540" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="538"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGllN3d9rI/AAAAAAAAB04/OD3maAhaR08/s1600-h/StatFormulaShotFrequency3.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="Stat Formula -- Shot Frequency" border="0" alt="Stat Formula -- Shot Frequency" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGllTJC2pI/AAAAAAAAB08/yCa0xu9U4SE/StatFormulaShotFrequency_thumb1.jpg?imgmax=800" width="644" height="93" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="538"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="656"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGllh-8lDI/AAAAAAAAB1A/HxpzA9NR7-k/s1600-h/2004626175213320512.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="Iverson really shoots a lot" border="0" alt="Iverson really shoots a lot" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGll5O2MhI/AAAAAAAAB1E/rg_nZR7bxQY/200462617521332051_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244" /></a> </td> <td valign="top" width="454"> <p align="left"><strong><u><em>Example:</em></u></strong> Let’s continue talking about <strong>Iverson</strong> here. Most of his life he’s been the first option on offense … a guy that the rest of the team made way for. As a result, he spent a lot of his career shooting the ball. How often does he shoot? Well, he’s played in 36719 minutes and taken 19690 total field goal attempts in that time. If you input the data it reveals that Allen Iverson, for his career, will shot the ball once every 1.865 minutes he’s on the floor. To be honest, this is the highest frequency I’ve seen in all my months ‘<em>beta testing’</em> these statistics. 1.865 minutes is every 1:52 of actual game time. So that means if he plays 35 minutes in a game he’ll shoot the ball nearly 19 times. For a point of reference another <strong>Hall of Fame type “point guard”</strong> is <strong>John Stockton</strong>, who shot the ball once every 3.497 minutes (<em>once ever 3:30 of game time</em>). If given the same amount of time (35 minutes), Stockton would shoot the ball 10 times. (<em>Really, 10 times, 10.008 is pretty darn accurate!)</em> That’s almost half as many shots as <strong>Iverson</strong> . . . and effectively, half as frequent. </p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <div align="left">This statistic helps us understand which guys really shoot the ball the most, and most likely, are the primary offensive options for any given team. (<em>Though, some anomalies exist, like <strong>Matt Harpring</strong> who shoots the ball very frequently for a guy with his skills – he shot the ball more often than some guys who started over him during his career)</em></div> <p><strong><u><em><font color="#0080ff" size="4">Gestalt Offense (GO):</font></em></u></strong> This is the biggie. I’ve fretted over this for days and days and finally am prepared to release it upon an unwitting population. It’s not perfect, and it seems to only work best with larger sample sizes (a seasons’ worth of data, or a road trip, may look fine – any singular game can break it). It really favors guards and only really works best for players who played in a <em>modern-ish era</em> (one where turnovers, offensive rebounds and other similar statistics were actually recorded). The basis for this was to isolate how much pressure certain players could place on the defense. What a player does on offense (when it comes to stats) can be either one of five things: he can assist on a score, he can get to the foul line, he can take a shot, he can be called for a turn over, or he can grab and offensive rebound. There are no stats for setting solid screens, or anything like the ‘hockey assist’ right now with how the stats are kept. So the statistic is already limited, but I try to do the best with the data that I have. Essentially the GO Rating is the summation of a player’s <strong>modified assists</strong>, <strong>free throw opportunities</strong>, <strong>offensive rebounding ability</strong>, <strong>penchant for scoring</strong> against their <strong>turnovers</strong>, all over the number of <strong>games</strong> a player has played:</p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="645" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="643"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlmLxnmlI/AAAAAAAAB1I/ZIKu3dbgWvY/s1600-h/StatFormulaGestaltOffensesimple3.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="Stat Formula -- Gestalt Offense (simple)" border="0" alt="Stat Formula -- Gestalt Offense (simple)" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlmeuTNSI/AAAAAAAAB1M/h43pQIk-ab4/StatFormulaGestaltOffensesimple_thum.jpg?imgmax=800" width="644" height="92" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="643"> <p>Of course, it’s a lot more complicated than that . . . </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="643"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlmqc51NI/AAAAAAAAB1Q/9GWx5C5x9vU/s1600-h/StatFormulaGestaltOffenseassists4.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="Stat Formula -- Gestalt Offense (assists)" border="0" alt="Stat Formula -- Gestalt Offense (assists)" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlm9I2a4I/AAAAAAAAB1U/9QDSzFMs3Sg/StatFormulaGestaltOffenseassists_thu.jpg?imgmax=800" width="644" height="98" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="643"> <p align="left">The first, and most straight forward, part of the equation is <strong>assists</strong>. This equation not only values assists higher than their normal value ( <strong><em>2.23 &gt; 1, after a</em></strong>ll), but it also serves to give a bonus to good passers, and penalize poor passers. (<em>Good or poor depending on if they have a high Assist to Turnover Ra</em>tio) The first standard value here is <strong>2.23</strong>. Where did this value come from? Well, it’s the true value of an assist when you balance it for the ratio of assisted 2PTFG vs. 3PTFG. (<em>According to the stats on <strong>ESPN.com</strong>, where all the major stats came from, aside from archived player stats from Basketball-Reference.com</em>) The second standard number is 1.48, this is the mean Assist to Turnover ratio for teams in the NBA. (Room for improvement exists here if I could actually find the mean Assist to Turnover ratio for the players) </p> <p align="left">As it stands how good you are at passing (vs. turning it over) affects how many total points you get from this category. After all, <strong>Tim Hardaway</strong> may be able to get you 37 assists on a road trip, but those 37 assists would be better than 37 assists from <strong>Alonzo Mourning</strong> because <strong>Zo</strong> would pick up quite a few more turnovers along the way.</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="643"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlnOA7ZMI/AAAAAAAAB1Y/LY9bj4gevQQ/s1600-h/StatFormulaGestaltOffensefreethrows3.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="Stat Formula -- Gestalt Offense (free throws)" border="0" alt="Stat Formula -- Gestalt Offense (free throws)" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlndVDN1I/AAAAAAAAB1c/8y5J-9p8Zwo/StatFormulaGestaltOffensefreethrows_.jpg?imgmax=800" width="644" height="116" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="643"> <p align="left"><strong>Free throws</strong> are simple enough to understand now that we’ve gone through assists. Here we don’t look at how many free throws an individual has made, as the point of the<strong> GO rating</strong> was to see the type of pressure that an offensive player puts on the defense. Instead the focus is to see how many free throw attempts the player gets. Of course the catch is that value for FGA is modified by how good a shooter you are compared to the league average (which is 77%). A guy like <strong>José Manuel Calderón</strong> may only go to the line half the time as someone like <strong>Shaq</strong> – but <strong>Shaq</strong> is below average and <strong>Jose</strong> above average to the point that the difference in points from this category are not as large as we would think.</p> <p align="left">Again, like in assists, it’s a bonus to good shooters and penalty to those who are not so hot from the line. In effect, you want your best free throw shooters at the line, their FTA are then worth more than that of guys who do not go to the line with as much confidence as they do.</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="643"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlnuAe2YI/AAAAAAAAB1g/N0XSEJk3bQk/s1600-h/StatFormulaGestaltOffenseoffensivere.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="Stat Formula -- Gestalt Offense (offensive rebounds)" border="0" alt="Stat Formula -- Gestalt Offense (offensive rebounds)" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlnxtgGcI/AAAAAAAAB1k/qgkgTqF3OHk/StatFormulaGestaltOffenseoffensivere%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="644" height="127" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="643"> <p align="left">Rebounding is easy. I figured that in the grand scheme of things, an Offensive Rebound is worth 1.16 points. I based this on how a Turnover is 1.3 points (see below), how an assist is 2.23 points and how points are worth, well, points. This is a modifier.</p> <p align="left">The second modifier is similar to previous categories. Before we looked at if the player was better than average at Assist to turnover ratio, and then how they fared in FT% against the mean. Here we see that 26.73% of the total rebounds in the <strong>NBA</strong> were offensive rebounds. If you are a better than average offensive rebounder then you get a bonus here, if you are worse, then you get a negative modifier (as seen as a number less than 1.0, but not a negative number, per se). This part of the equation really seems to get broken if used on <strong>Charles Barkley</strong> (who, if you look at just one game, would get some crazy number of points in this section because he had 11 offensive rebounds and 5 defensive ones). Thankfully this section self-neuters itself if you have zero offensive rebounds.</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="643"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGloDUuyKI/AAAAAAAAB1o/V7FFN-7iRCg/s1600-h/StatFormulaGestaltOffenseshooting3.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="Stat Formula -- Gestalt Offense (shooting)" border="0" alt="Stat Formula -- Gestalt Offense (shooting)" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGloa4Zd-I/AAAAAAAAB1s/SQ92gLlheFw/StatFormulaGestaltOffenseshooting_th.jpg?imgmax=800" width="644" height="79" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="643"> <p align="left">Man, where do I begin with this one? Well, we went over <strong>Shot Frequency</strong> already. We divide 33.6 (representing 33.6 minutes of action for an elite player) by the player’s own <strong>Shot Frequency</strong>. This tells us how many shots he will put up if given <strong>Starter</strong> type of minutes. </p> <p align="left">The next step is adding 1 to the <strong>Effective Field Goal Percentage</strong> (<strong>eFG%</strong>). This is so that we get a positive value with the percentage when multiplied. Why use <strong>eFG%</strong> instead of just regular <strong>FG%</strong>? Well, <strong>eFG</strong>% adds into account three point shots, and the higher degree of difficulty of shooting from that distance. (<a href="http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2004/12/15/what-are-those-numbers/" target="_blank">For more info on eFG% click here</a>) This step tries to even things out a bit.</p> <p align="left">The third part is how the player’s <strong>Shot Worth</strong> (also described earlier) rates compared to the league average for Shot Worth (or PPS). If you are <strong>Malone-like</strong>, you get a nice bonus here, if you are <strong>Iverson-like</strong>, you don’t get a bonus, and if you are really poor, then you get a penalty.</p> <p align="left">The last part is the total points scored by the individual, divided by 10. Ten was one of the first numbers I used that seemed to make things work out when I was fiddling around. I don’t know if this last section of the Shooting section is legit or not yet, I remember when I tried this out without the last part that individuals would be getting very little from this part of the equation. At some stage you have to factor in how many points a guys scores, even if you are looking are how well they shoot.</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="643"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGloozcEfI/AAAAAAAAB1w/YpNkLweB00I/s1600-h/StatFormulaGestaltOffenseturnovers3.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="Stat Formula -- Gestalt Offense (turnovers)" border="0" alt="Stat Formula -- Gestalt Offense (turnovers)" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SmGlo0tBlmI/AAAAAAAAB10/6i9fAOTh8a8/StatFormulaGestaltOffenseturnovers_t.jpg?imgmax=800" width="644" height="137" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="643"> <p align="left">Uhhhh, so this is very easy to understand. I’m not going to mention anything more than that this value is subtracted from the rest of the section values in the numerator. Don’t forget to divide everything by the total number of games, ya here!</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p align="left">Man, I’m super duper tired, so I’m just going to go ahead and post this. Give me feedback, tell me I’m crazy and set me straight. I think we need mores stats, and unfortunately, the lack of defensive categories means I can’t make a Defensive GO rating type of stat. I’m open to changing my formulas and re-working things. If you want I can e-mail you the spread sheet that contains the Macro that calculates these new stats. (I got really sick and tired of calculating the GO Rating by hand with pen and paper.)</p> <p align="left">I will probably make another post on the <strong>Go Rating in</strong> the future, filled with examples of players, and how they rated. So far I’ve seen that eFG%, Total Points, Assist to turnover ratio and a few other factors really seem to hinder bigmen, while giving guards and other wing players a boost. For the record, <strong>Magic Johnson’s GO Rating is 102.241</strong>, and he is the gold standard . . . some guys score higher than he does, while others politely fall into place. (<strong>Jordan</strong> is at 120, Karl <strong>Malone</strong> at 83, and so forth.)</p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-83261885859652425032009-07-14T18:36:00.001-04:002009-07-14T18:38:59.846-04:00Probably why you’re not going to see any Indians in the NBA anytime soon<div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="758" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="312"> <p align="left">Okay, I love <strong>India</strong>. I love <strong>Indian food</strong>. I love <strong>Indian people</strong>. I am, ethnically, <strong>Indian</strong>. I’ve lived there a few times in my life. <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/search/label/India" target="_blank">I even blogged about the very real full court press the <strong>NBA using to gain market share and popularity in the largest democracy by population in the world</strong></a>. But we (as <strong>NBA Fans</strong>) are not going to see any <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=desi" target="_blank">desis</a> in the <strong>NBA</strong> anytime soon. For evidence I present my little cousin (<em>KD – like <strong>Durant</strong>, but unlike him in so many ways</em>) dunking on his driveway basket at home in SoCal. Ekdhum Motu Saffar Na Thaiyo! </p> <p align="left">(aka. <strong>Epic Fail</strong> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarati_language" target="_blank">Gujarati</a>)</p> </td> <td valign="top" width="444"> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:e5a9848b-c258-41b6-9fef-8acd8d6708af" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="0a658fcf-028f-4267-a6ba-b1df3ddb0e5a" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=didNyyAxzaM&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6" target="_new"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Sl0Ie-VtJJI/AAAAAAAABz8/Azn8QhbaeKs/video08604122f10f%5B8%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('0a658fcf-028f-4267-a6ba-b1df3ddb0e5a'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = &quot;&lt;div&gt;&lt;object width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=\&quot;movie\&quot; value=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/didNyyAxzaM&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/param&gt;&lt;embed src=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/didNyyAxzaM&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hl=en\&quot; type=\&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash\&quot; width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/embed&gt;&lt;\/object&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;&quot;;" alt=""></a></div></div></div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-38376393117087306612009-07-14T17:23:00.001-04:002009-07-14T17:34:19.349-04:00So . . . I was right about Ronnie Price<p> If you aren’t on <strong><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/07/five-reasons-why-you-should-be-on.html" target="_blank">twitter</a></strong>, then this is news: the <strong>Jazz</strong> <a href="http://www.nba.com/jazz/news/09_roster_resign_ronnieprice_71409.html" target="_blank">are going to be bringing back</a> <strong>Ronnie Price</strong>. (also confirmed by <a href="http://twitter.com/DJPKKFAN" target="_blank">1320 KFAN</a> by <em>txt message</em> and via <em>Twitter</em> and the <a href="http://twitter.com/utah_jazz" target="_blank">PR department of the Utah Jazz</a>, via <em>Twitter</em>) Of course, this was a mere formality after <strong><a href="http://www.slcdunk.com/2009/6/25/925677/kevin-oconnor-and-jerry-sloan-talk" target="_blank">Sloan was talking about Price in post draft interviews about Eric Maynor</a></strong><strong></strong>. But really, <em>you didn’t need that either</em> – you just needed to listen to me all along. So, last off-season the <strong>Jazz</strong> traded <strong>Hart</strong> for <strong>Knight</strong>, and by doing so, put themselves in a position where they would end up evaluating two guys for one spot all season long – with the final prize being a contract. I’m sure it must have been a crazy year for both <strong>Ronnie Price</strong> and <strong>Brevin Knight</strong>, playing against each other all season long fighting for playing time, both in the last year of expiring contracts.</p> <blockquote> <h4><em>Wednesday, October 15, 2008 (an excerpt)</em></h4> <p><a name="1559126403914372573"></a></p> <h5><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/things-to-look-for-this-season-brevin.html">Things to look for this season: Brevin Knight</a></h5> <p>Posted by Amar at <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/things-to-look-for-this-season-brevin.html"><abbr>1:30 PM</abbr></a></p> <p>“. . . <strong><u>More playing time at PG than Ronnie Price:</u></strong> That doesn't mean that <strong>Price</strong> isn't going to get playing time this season -- he may very well beat out <strong>Knight</strong> as the season goes on -- but over all <strong>Knight</strong> is going to get more playing time at the <strong>PG</strong> than <strong>Price</strong> will . . . ”</p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <h4><em>Thursday, October 16, 2008 (an excerpt)</em></h4> <p><a name="5422641943967671354"></a></p> <h5><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/things-to-look-for-this-season-ronnie.html">Things to look for this season: Ronnie Price</a></h5> <p>Posted by Amar at <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/things-to-look-for-this-season-ronnie.html"><abbr>11:58 PM</abbr></a></p> <p>“. . . If you haven't been following <a href="http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/p/pricero01.html"><strong>Ronnie Price's</strong> career</a>, this is pretty much his own version of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus#.22Sisyphean_task.22_or_.22Sisyphean_challenge.22">Sisyphus' challenge</a>. His entire career he's had to make a living by beating other guys out for playing time. He did it two years ago in <strong>Sacramento</strong> (beating <strong>Jason Hart</strong> out). He did it last year in <strong>Utah</strong> (again beating <strong>Jason Hart</strong> out). And he's basically going to have to do it a 3rd year in a row, having to attempt to beat out <strong><strike>Jason Hart</strike></strong> the guy they traded <strong>Jason Hart</strong> for (<strong>Brevin Knight</strong>). <strong>Brevin</strong> also being in a contract year makes this even <em>'better'</em>, in terms of entertainment value. They are in direct competition with each other for this season -- <u><em>and the next ones too</em></u>! The only way to make things a little bit harder for <strong>Price</strong> would be if his coach decides <em>'just for fun'</em> (in that exaggerated East Indian accent that <strong>Russell Peters</strong> has sometimes) to stop playing him at <strong>point guard</strong> -- and have him fight for playing time against 4 shooting guards (<strong>Brewer</strong>, <strong>Korver</strong>, <strong>Miles</strong> and <strong>Almond</strong>). Sounds dumb, right? Sounds even better from <strong>Jerry's</strong> own mouth [<a href="http://www.thefansports.com/blog/1/custom/1010sloan.mp3">Interview, around the 1:54 to 4:13 mark</a>, via 1320 KFAN]. For the record though, he does compliment <strong>Price</strong> as well during that answer, and suggests that his versatility allows him to play alongside <strong>Knight</strong> for a really small, quick line-up.</p> <p>Basically, then, all <strong>Ronnie Price</strong> has to do is beat out <strong>Knight</strong>, and his future here in <strong>Utah</strong> will be secure, well it should be, right <strong><a href="http://www.nba.com/bucks/news/WilliamsSigns_070724.html">Mo Williams</a></strong>? <strong>Price</strong> has some advantages though, as he's been here last season, won the job, and played in every <strong>playoff game</strong>. Furthermore, he's a popular guy (in that younger crew with <strong>Millsap</strong>, <strong>Brewer</strong> and <strong>Miles</strong>) and the <strong>Jazz</strong> went 43-18 in games that he played in. That's winning 70.5 % of those games -- good enough for a 58 win season over 82 games. Here are three things to look out for this season from <strong>Ronnie Price</strong>:</p> <p>&#160;</p> <li><strong><u>Hustle every minute on the floor</u></strong>: <strong>Deron Williams</strong> plays so much <strong>point guard</strong> that there is very little time remaining for the other guys. There's going to be 8-12 minutes per game available by my estimation, and that's not nearly enough to play all three guys every game. What <strong>Price</strong> will do is hustle and play very hard in whatever time he has. <strong>Brevin Knight</strong> isn't <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shFKExLuS_M">going to jump up there and slam down alley-oops</a>, or <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRqXv46owUg">run back and block guys on fast breaks</a>. Those are the types of plays that'll help get <strong>Price</strong> another contract with the <strong>Jazz</strong> -- especially if he plays within the offense and runs the team well. </li> <p>&#160;</p> <li><strong><u>Be available (and healthy) to play in 80+ games</u></strong>: <strong>Knight</strong> gets injured every year. He's never played over 80 games and whatever slim window of playing time exists has to be maximized by <strong>Price</strong>. <strong>Price</strong> needs to be available every game to go in and give <strong>Deron</strong> a breather. Especially in the cases where <strong>Knight</strong> is going to be injured and unavailable to play. It sounds simple, but it makes sense. One easy way to distinguish himself from his competition is be healthy. <strong>Coach</strong> is going to go with the guys on the roster who can play. Sometimes it doesn't have to be complicated. <strong>Knight</strong> averages 59 games played a season over his career. There is a window of opportunity for <strong>Price</strong> here, even if it's not wide open. </li> <p>&#160;</p> <li><strong><u>Eventually beat out Brevin Knight</u></strong>: I'm going to come out and say it -- there are going to be some situations all year where one of the two guys is going to get to play, and the other guy will sit. There will be situations where one guy is favored to play over the other (match-ups, etc). Also, there could be some times on the court where they both play at the same time. Out of all of those situations I think that the veteran leadership of <strong>Brevin Knight</strong> is going to be a stabilizing force for our team. I just can't bet against <strong>Ronnie Price</strong>. He's a smaller, scrappy guard who has three point range and has been in this situation before. <strong>Knight</strong> is smaller, scrappier, and much better than <strong>Jason Hart</strong> (the guy <strong>Price</strong> used to beat out each of those previous times), but I think <strong>Price</strong> has more fight in him. If <strong>Knight</strong> gets decked by <strong>Turiaf</strong> I see him on the floor for a while. <strong>Price</strong> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SSYcH783yU">got decked and was ready to fight</a>. It's probably this fight that's going to win him the job sometime after the <strong>All-Star Break</strong>. . .”</li> </blockquote> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="798" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="272"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Slz3Sqi0VhI/AAAAAAAABzg/03se4qjrLcA/s1600-h/price_resigns%5B11%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="The Price is right" border="0" alt="The Price is right" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Slz3S56-Z6I/AAAAAAAABzk/wI8tLC-MdH0/price_resigns_thumb%5B9%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="263" height="355" /></a></td> <td valign="top" width="524"> <p align="left"><strong>Price</strong> eventually did win out, it appears, but thanks to <strong>Brevin Knight</strong> for being there. He was instrumental in our team starting the seasons on a 5-0 run, but just did not get it going after that. It’s a shame really, because I think we all expected more out of him. Alas, he’ll be looking to play somewhere else next season. </p> <blockquote> <p align="left"><strong><em><u><font color="#8000ff" size="3">Kevin O’Connor (GM):</font></u></em></strong> “Keeping <strong>Ronnie</strong> on our roster was important to us. He is someone who knows our system and has proven capable of stepping in whenever called upon. Over the last two seasons he has shown a commitment to working hard and improving his game, and as a result, we expect his growth to continue.”</p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p align="left"><strong><u><em><font color="#8000ff" size="3">Randy Rigby (Utah Jazz President):</font></em></u></strong> “<strong>Ronnie Price</strong> is the consummate professional. He is always prepared when <strong>Coach Sloan</strong> calls on him and we are looking forward to his energy and toughness next season.”</p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p align="left"><em><strong>“The Utah Jazz announced today that the team has re-signed guard Ronnie Price.&#160; Per team policy, terms of the deal were not released.” (</strong></em><a href="http://www.nba.com/jazz/news/09_roster_resign_ronnieprice_71409.html" target="_blank"><em><strong>The Utah Jazz, July 14, 2009</strong></em></a><em><strong>)</strong></em></p> </blockquote> <p align="left">If you don’t recall, <strong>Price</strong> did not get a chance to play massive minutes in the playoffs this season, which is in stark contrast to last <strong>season’s playoffs</strong>. But in the time that he did play, he played with energy, hustle, fire and without fear. That’s the type of player I want on the court when we’re on the wrong side of an elimination game. And that’s exactly the type of player the <strong>Jazz</strong> have in <strong>Price</strong>.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-38306142500345376912009-07-14T15:35:00.001-04:002009-07-14T15:58:46.528-04:00Five reasons why you should be on Twitter<p>1. <strong><u><em><font size="4">Inside Access:</font></em></u></strong> If you ever wished you could be privy to unedited communication between your favorite players, this is it. Every day I get to read about <strong>Morris Almond</strong> and his rap lyric tweets; guys like <strong>Shaquille O’Neal</strong> and <strong>Charlie Bell</strong> making fun of <strong>Chris Bosh</strong> and <strong>Charlie Villanueva’s</strong> twitter followers contest; and insane, by the minute unedited, raw reactions from the <strong>NBA family</strong> to currently developing events. (<strong>Draft Night</strong> was much better because of <strong>Kevin Love</strong> and <strong>John Hollinger</strong> tweeting all night long) If you’re content to be dicked around by <strong>ESPN’s</strong> “In$ider” fee for access then you don’t need Twitter. If you want to go deeper (for free), there’s no better option right now.</p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="400" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="http://api.photoshop.com/home_2b9cfd5172294a0486be51ca0d78a064/adobe-px-assets/47ffa730232e41dab936926a925c26b1" target="_blank"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Click for larger image" border="0" alt="Click for larger image" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Slzd8IJNOYI/AAAAAAAAByo/4Ax5ENdsHio/Twitter007%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="459" height="654" /></a></td> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="center"><a href="http://api.photoshop.com/home_2b9cfd5172294a0486be51ca0d78a064/adobe-px-assets/a5a43883d8ae429f9a49e7e442132fe6" target="_blank"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Click for larger image" border="0" alt="Click for larger image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Slzd8q59_oI/AAAAAAAABys/6dk8_2Tui8w/Twitter006%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="459" height="654" /></a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"> <p align="center"><a href="http://api.photoshop.com/home_2b9cfd5172294a0486be51ca0d78a064/adobe-px-assets/a025b3ba8bf34e589711e526f78e9fa9" target="_blank"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Click for larger image" border="0" alt="Click for larger image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SlzgHXWHIAI/AAAAAAAAByw/aa-RkSaCAD8/Twitter000x%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="459" height="654" /></a> </p> </td> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="http://api.photoshop.com/home_2b9cfd5172294a0486be51ca0d78a064/adobe-px-assets/bf0a517c787a429186001a5088fe7553" target="_blank"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Click for larger image" border="0" alt="Click for larger image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Slzd-pgayLI/AAAAAAAABy0/eUiEK2KaXjo/Twitter011%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="459" height="654" /></a> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p> 2. <strong><u><em><font size="4">Connections:</font></em></u></strong> Years ago it would be impossible for <strong>Mr.Joe Blow Fan</strong> to be in direct communications with the PR staff of their favorite team, National TV NBA analysts, well respected reporters, <strong>Bloggers</strong>, other <strong>Fans</strong> and the <strong>players</strong> themselves. Technology has afforded us this opportunity now. While you may wait half an hour to get on sports radio, or weeks for a written fan mail reply from a star today you get responses near instantly. I don’t ride around town in a horse drawn buggy, I drive a car that is itself not entirely reliant upon non-renewable fossil fuels. I move with the times, and my life is better for it. <strong>Twitter</strong> <em>is a movement forward</em>.</p> <p>3. <strong><u><em><font size="4">Speed</font></em></u></strong>: My cousin is a pretty big <strong>NBA fan,</strong> and he texted me yesterday about <strong>Gortat’s</strong> <a href="http://www.nba.com/2009/news/07/13/magic.gortat.ap/index.html?rss=true" target="_blank">contract being matched by the Orlando Magic</a>. That was breaking news for that day, for that afternoon. It was news that was a few hours old for me, though, because of my connection with the Twitterverse. How ridiculous is that? (over 30 hours ago was when I heard about it first) If you want the news as it happens, few things are faster than twitter right now. Right now when I started typing this everything was normal, now the Tweets are piling in about <strong>Boozer</strong> going on the radio in <strong>Chicago</strong> talking about a trade, and confirmations of <strong>Detroit</strong> local radio talking about a <strong>Boozer</strong> trade that’s going down. See how crazy this is? [<strong>Edit: Detroit radio tweets are speculative rumors</strong>]</p> <p>4. <font size="4"><strong><u><em>Participation Optional</em></u></strong>:</font> You don’t even have to tweet to benefit from Twitter – you just subscribe to a few random people that you know/like/wish to follow, and from there you slowly add more people that you read (from @(someone) messages) and before you know it you can sit at your desk at work pressing F5 and reading some crazy conversations. But it’s not even about that passive form of entertainment because of the . . . </p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="365" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="http://api.photoshop.com/home_2b9cfd5172294a0486be51ca0d78a064/adobe-px-assets/5cc941b9a5c1408b8bbdc4a5fe66a822" target="_blank"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="Click for larger image" border="0" alt="Click for larger image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Slzd_AmHUUI/AAAAAAAABy8/WRqFIvFhdWw/Twitter000%5B8%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="473" height="654" /></a> </td> <td valign="top" width="163"><a href="http://api.photoshop.com/home_2b9cfd5172294a0486be51ca0d78a064/adobe-px-assets/c268da2e5b20430bbd262f9acb9a8834" target="_blank"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Click for larger image" border="0" alt="Click for larger image" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Slzd_4jcbcI/AAAAAAAABzI/ZHvcD4L_Jdc/Twitter001%5B11%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="459" height="654" /></a> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p>5. <strong><u><em><font size="4">People you meet</font></em></u></strong>: Really, using twitter has increased my productivity in networking with other NBA fans, bloggers, players, reporters and others exponentially. More so, I’m actually getting into non-homer discussions with fans of other teams as well. This off-season I’ve learned that I probably have more in common with the people I Tweet with than some of my own extended family members. While I used to previously view them as the enemy, I know have a personal affinity for <strong>New Orleans Hornets fans</strong> that just did not exist until Twitter. (Even the ones whose blogs I used to frequent and communicate with on other websites before, like <strong>Dimemag</strong> – they were still the enemy back then!) Now we occasionally share youtube videos of cats and talk about PC RPG user created mods. (You know who you are) How totally unexpected!</p> <p><strong><u><em><font size="4">Bonus Reason</font></em></u></strong>: it doesn’t even have to be about sports at all . . . you can just use it to follow people you already know, or other celebrities . . . I know that I really enjoy <strong>Will Wheaton’s</strong> twitter updates, they are hilarious and usually involve some sort of <strong>The Simpsons</strong> reference. Also, Twitter is the destroyer of worlds.</p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-36760148122824566402009-07-14T14:32:00.001-04:002009-07-14T14:32:34.098-04:00Wooooo! One Year Old!<p><strong>Happy Birthday AllThatJazz</strong>, you’ve been online clogging up the internets for one whole year now. Sure, you really fizzled down the stretch (like the Jazz), but you were really active in the off-season. Guess what? It’s the off-season again. Oh, the things you have seen in your first year of life . . .</p> <ul> <li><strong>Fesenko</strong> had blond hair</li> <li><strong>The Salt Lake City</strong> media couldn’t get enough of it</li> <li><strong>Morris Almond</strong> was killing it in the summer league</li> <li><strong>Deron</strong> got injured</li> <li>remember that game in <strong>Philly</strong> where no one was active to play, and we won?</li> <li><strong>Boozer</strong> got injured</li> <li>eventually <strong>everyone</strong> got injured</li> <li>The <strong>team owner</strong> died</li> <li><strong>Utah</strong> went from 1st in the division to 3rd</li> <li>we just squeaked into the <strong>playoffs</strong> and were unceremoniously ousted by the eventual champions, the <strong>Lakers</strong></li> <li>somehow, over the course of the season, 5 new Jazz blogs came into being</li> </ul> <p>And since then so many things have changed, this season the <strong>Jazz</strong> look to a new coach and general manager to right this ship, as <strong>Deron Williams</strong> will be looking to set up all new team mates in the quest for . . . wait what? REALLY? Okay, scratch that, the Jazz will go into this next season with, pretty much, <strong>the exact same team</strong>, <strong>coach</strong> and <strong>front office</strong> and <strong>expect better results</strong>. <strong>Memo</strong>, <strong>Boozer</strong> and <strong>Korver</strong> all opted into their final years of their contract. Two low draft picks were added, <strong>Millsap</strong> is a RFA and hopefully the <strong>Jazz</strong> are healthier next season.</p> <p>So that much hasn’t changed from last year to this year . . . but let’s look at some <strong>blogging highlights from the past year! </strong><em>(and no, there are NOT all the blog posts I did all year long, jerks!)</em></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/07/to-fans-to-bloggers.html" target="_blank">Why I decided to blog, and early concerns for saturation of Jazz blogs</a> (July 14th, 2008)</li> <li>Explaining how awesome Stockton was/is. (July 15th, 2008 <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/07/i-thought-they-didnt-know.html" target="_blank">a</a>; <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/07/if-you-still-dont-know.html" target="_blank">b</a>; <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/04/john-stockton-89-nba-playoff-averages.html" target="_blank">April 20th, 2009</a>)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/07/face-of-franchie.html" target="_blank">Deron Williams signing for the long haul</a> (July 19, 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/07/aren-pillows.html" target="_blank">The Brevin Knight/Jason Hart trade</a> (July 23, 2008)</li> <li>Not-so-Jazzy Nicknames (<a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/08/not-so-jazzy-nicknames.html" target="_blank">Part 1:</a> August 4th, 2008; <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/11/not-so-jazzy-nicknames-part-deux.html" target="_blank">Part 2:</a> November 12th, 2008; <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/12/not-so-jazzy-nicknames-third.html" target="_blank">Part 3:</a> December 1st, 2009)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/08/making-guard.html" target="_blank">The Making Guard</a> (August 21st, 2008); <a title="On a wing and a prayer" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/04/on-wing-and-prayer.html">On a wing and a prayer</a> (April 11th, 2009)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/08/nba-next-target-india-why-india-why-not.html">The NBA's next target: India. Why India? Why not?</a> (August 27th, 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/08/10-things-other-point-guards-do-better.html">10 Things other Point Guards do better than Deron Williams, and why.</a> (August 28th, 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-if-ussr-played-at-olympics.html">What if: The USSR played at the Olympics?</a> (September 2nd, 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/09/adrian-dantley-better-late-than-never.html">Adrian Dantley -- better late than never</a> (September 7th, 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/09/hoops-pedia-game-of-destiny.html">Hoops-pedia: Game of Destiny</a> (September 9th, 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/09/five-epic-errors-of-jerry-eugene-sloan.html">The Five Epic Errors of Jerry Eugene Sloan</a> (September 11th, 2008); <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/five-epic-qualities-of-jerry-eugene.html">The Five Epic Qualities of Jerry Eugene Sloan</a> (October 17th, 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/09/tangent-alert-sports-figures-are-public.html">Tangent Alert: sports figures ARE public figures</a> (September 22nd, 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/mehmet-okur-evolution.html">Mehmet Okur Evolution . . .</a> (October 1st, 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/youtube-tuesdays-mehmet-okur-interview.html">YouTube Tuesdays! Mehmet Okur Interview Drinking Game</a> (October 15th ,2008)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/flashback-friday-andrei-back-when-he.html">Flashback Friday: Andrei back when he was AK-47</a> (October 24th, 2008)</li> <li><a title="YouTube Tuesdays! We&#39;re Number Three!" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/youtube-tuesdays-we-number-three.html">YouTube Tuesdays! We're Number Three!</a> (October 28th, 2008)</li> <li><a title="Utah Jazz 2008-2009 Season Preview!" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/utah-jazz-2008-2009-season-preview.html">Utah Jazz 2008-2009 Season Preview!</a> (October 29th, 2008)</li> <li><a title="Flashback Friday- Some other young Jazz players that got better after their rookie seasons or ho" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/flashback-friday-some-other-young-jazz.html">Flashback Friday- Some other young Jazz players that got better after their rookie seasons or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the Long Bomb (from Morris Almond)</a> (October 31st, 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/11/youtube-tuesday-millsap-owns-kaman.html">YouTube Tuesdays! Millsap owns Kaman</a> (November 4th, 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/11/where-in-world-is-tadija-dragicevic-and.html">Where in the world is Tadija Dragicevic and Ante Tomic?</a> (November 6th, 2008)</li> <li><a title="10 Things Jazz fans should be thankful for" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/11/10-things-jazz-fans-should-be-thankful.html">10 Things Jazz fans should be thankful for</a> (November 27th, 2008)</li> <li><a title="Game 6 Recap- New York 107 - Utah 99" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/12/game-6-recap-new-york-107-utah-99.html">Game 6 Recap- New York 107 - Utah 99</a> (December 13th, 2008) &lt;---- super late game recap</li> <li><a title="The King is dead. Love live the King!" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/02/king-is-dead-love-live-king.html">The King is dead. Love live the King!</a> (February 21st, 2009)</li> <li><a title="Walking Wounded" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/02/walking-wounded.html">Walking Wounded</a> (February 21st, 2009)</li> <li><a title="To be honest with you Diane, I&#39;m surprised" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/02/be-honest-with-you-diane-i-surprised.html">To be honest with you Diane, I'm surprised</a> (February 21st, 2009)</li> <li><a title="NBA cross over post" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/02/requisite-oscarsnba-cross-over-post.html">Requisite Oscars/NBA cross over post</a> (February 23rd, 2009)</li> <li><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/02/jedi-voodoo-mind-trick-hype-machine.html">The Jedi Voodoo Mind Trick Hype Machine</a> (February 25th, 2009)</li> <li><a title="ESPN, and the fans who love to hate them" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/02/espn-and-fans-who-love-to-hate-them.html">ESPN, and the fans who love to hate them</a> (February 26th, 2009) &lt;--- a must read</li> <li><a title="Flashback Friday- WE&#39;RE GOING STREAKING!" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/03/flashback-friday-going-streaking.html">Flashback Friday- WE'RE GOING STREAKING!</a> (March 6th, 2009)</li> <li><a title="Contract years, Developing Talent &amp; Front Office Subterfuge" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/03/contract-years-developing-talent-front.html">Contract years, Developing Talent &amp; Front Office Subterfuge</a> (March 6th, 2009)</li> <li><a title="Carlos Boozer to English Dictionary -- Episode 1" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/03/carlos-boozer-to-english-dictionary.html">Carlos Boozer to English Dictionary -- Episode 1</a> (March 9th, 2009)</li> <li><a title="Rational Jazz Blogger Roundtable 1- Playoffs, Player evaluations &amp; Jazz fan reputations" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/03/rational-jazz-blogger-roundtable-1.html">Rational Jazz Blogger Roundtable 1- Playoffs, Player evaluations &amp; Jazz fan reputations</a> (March 10th, 2009)</li> <li><a title="How bad are the Jazz on the road, really-" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-bad-are-jazz-on-road-really.html">How bad are the Jazz on the road, really-</a> (March 25th, 2009)</li> <li><a title=". . . Of Mice and Millsap" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/03/of-mice-and-millsap.html">. . . Of Mice and Millsap</a> (March 26th, 2009)</li> <li><a title="2008-2009 Regular Season- What the heck happened-" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/04/2008-2009-regular-season-what-heck.html">2008-2009 Regular Season- What the heck happened-</a> (April 11th, 2009)</li> <li><a title="Home (aka SLC) is where the wins are" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/04/home-aka-slc-is-where-wins-are.html">Home (aka SLC) is where the wins are</a> (April 11th, 2009)</li> <li><a title="Finishing weak" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/04/finishing-weak.html">Finishing weak</a> (April 12th, 2009)</li> <li><a title="Searching for that PPF- Perfect Power Forward" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/04/searching-for-that-ppf-perfect-power.html">Searching for that PPF- Perfect Power Forward</a> (April 13th, 2009)</li> <li><a title="You have got to be kidding me – Jeff Hornacek Mix!!!" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/04/you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me-jeff.html">You have got to be kidding me – Jeff Hornacek Mix!!!</a> (April 20th, 2009)</li> <li><a title="Round 1, Game 3 Postmortem- Luck" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/04/round-1-game-3-postmortem-luck.html">Round 1, Game 3 Postmortem- Luck</a> (April 24th, 2009) &lt;—Luck off, Lakers fans</li> <li><a title="Utah Jazz 2008-2009 Season in Review (Part 1)- The Season that was" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/05/utah-jazz-2008-2009-season-in-review.html">Utah Jazz 2008-2009 Season in Review (Part 1)- The Season that was</a> (May 17th, 2009)</li> <li><a title="Who else is sick with the Great Hype surrounding Andrew “Bust”num-" href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/05/who-else-is-sick-with-great-hype.html">Who else is sick with the Great Hype surrounding Andrew “Bust”num-</a> (May 18th, 2009)</li> </ul> <p>Hopefully this next season is better for the Jazz *and* All That Jazz (and no, I don’t mean the section of the Utah Jazz Official Website that stole my name, and is featured at the bottom of their page, seriously, that’s a total rip off job) as well. I learned a lot in this last year, and hope to use it by continuing to blog! (Be it here, or elsewhere in some other place)</p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-77959235049139382882009-05-18T01:57:00.001-04:002009-05-18T01:57:18.778-04:00Hmmmm<p>This may be super meta, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I wouldn’t read my blog if it wasn’t written by me. Too many words. Not enough pictures. I’m also super lazy, I have to go over all my tags and unify the format . . . I’m really avoiding doing this.</p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-23498448300241069892009-05-18T00:46:00.001-04:002009-05-18T14:10:11.604-04:00Who else is sick with the Great Hype surrounding Andrew “Bust”num?<p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShDoNObZ00I/AAAAAAAABwc/TEeEVC7AfLc/s1600-h/bynum-playboy%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: 0px" title="Rehab aint easy . . ." border="0" alt="Rehab aint easy . . ." align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShDoNc5x1ZI/AAAAAAAABwg/Lwb7cJQCq4c/bynum-playboy_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="242" height="334" /></a> If you’ve ever wandered onto an <strong>LA Lakers blog</strong>, <strong>message board</strong>, or listened to a nationally broadcasted game by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Tirico#Controversy" target="_blank">Mike “Fellatio for the Lakers 24/7” Tirico</a> then you’ll know, with complete certainty, that <strong>Andrew Bynum</strong> is one of the best centers in the league, and will without giving any prior notice, become the next best center in the league and join the pantheon of great bigmen. He will rightfully sit alongside <strong>Wilt</strong>, <strong>Russell</strong> and <strong>Kareem</strong> while using <strong>Ewing</strong>, <strong>Robinson</strong> and <strong>O’Neal</strong> as foot rests. The third footrest will be necessary because of how great and grand his male organ must be – as <em>he has been photographed at the Playboy mansion</em> (who cares) and is <a href="http://davissportsdeli.com/wordpress/2009/04/23/who-cares-if-andrew-bynum-is-dating-rihanna/" target="_blank">curiously linked to Rihanna right now</a>. (who? <em>exactly</em>.)</p> <p>As impressive as his potential appears, and as great as his off-court life may or may not be (I’d rather hang out at the <strong><a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/211/490356749_085cb6af74.jpg" target="_blank">Acharya mansion any day of the week</a></strong>) – I’m less than impressed with him as a player. I’m even less impressed when I actually look at his accomplishments as a player in the <strong>playoffs</strong> (aka. when it counts). Furthermore, I’m pretty much sick to death by the hype that he has received from casual fans, homer fans, and the media alike. Now, this isn’t meant to trash the hopes of the future of the Lakers at all – I strive to temper the expectations of him a little bit. For his sake, and ours.</p> <p>My brother is the most rational <strong>Lakers</strong> fan I know, he is passionate, but not completely under the spell that countless others are on the internet. He’s more concerned with consistent play, rebounding and solid defense from all of the <strong>Lakers</strong> and does not have the time to worry about if <strong>Bynum</strong> is going to be the next <strong>Kareem</strong> – he’s worried about right now. If I was a <strong>Lakers fan</strong> I wouldn’t be worried about right now – you guys will trounce <strong>Denver</strong> on your way to the <strong>NBA Finals</strong> (where anything can happen). I would, on the other hand, be worried about the past – specifically <strong>Bynum’s</strong> past.</p> <p>He’s 21 years old right now and was drafted as a 17 year old. What do we know about him that should really count? How about the fact that he had an injury ruined high school career (leg/knee injury), and in the <strong>NBA</strong> has had two more leg/knee injuries in his young career. He’s tall, but not nearly as super athletic and fit as freaks like <strong>Dwight Howard</strong> or <strong>Amare</strong> <strong>Stoudemire</strong> are – I don’t expect him to be physically made of the same stuff as those guys are. When you get over 7 feet tall, any injuries to your lower body seriously limit how reliable you can be, regardless of how much work one may put on their upper bodies. (You’re only as strong as your base is – look at <strong>Yao Ming</strong>, who has just a storied lower body injury history as <strong>Bynum</strong>, he misses lots of games every year, and is never 100% due to the strain his body puts on his lower body) <strong>Amare</strong> had two career ending (had this been the 80’s/90’s) knee injuries, but has come back due to a great work ethic. <strong>Bynum</strong> puts women on his shoulders during rehab. I wouldn’t be making a huge leap by suggesting that <strong>Bynum</strong> may have a career that features a number of injuries to his lower body, not unlike <strong>Yao Ming</strong> – as opposed to being virtual injury free like <strong>Dwight Howard</strong>. But I have no crystal ball, I’m just going on the fact that he’s a big guy with a history of lower body injuries who was injury prone as a teen and only looks to put an increasingly large strain on those same joints as his ages and increases mass.</p> <p>That’s not very empirical though, it’s just an assumed health arc based on his body type, job, apparent work ethic, how healthy other big guys his size have been and medical history. What is empirical, on the other hand, is to dig deep and look at stats. I love stats. Stats are flawed, as I’ve explained on this blog before, but they still give a pretty good indication of on court production. (After all, that’s what counts, points, rebounds, blocks, assists, steals, turn overs and fouls, right?)</p> <p>After this last game against the <strong>Houston Rockets</strong> the total number of playoff games that <strong>Bynum</strong> has participated in stands at 18. These 18 games have taken him from <strong>2005-2006</strong> till now to amass. In that time he has been brought along slowly – thanks to the fact that he doesn’t need to be useful when he’s so far down the pecking order behind at least 4 other guys. That said, his production does not appear to be indicative of him joining the pantheon of great bigmen any decade soon. I want to look at his stats in the playoffs and see the promise that appears to be there (and only appears in regular season games against bad teams sandwiched between injuries). As a point of reference I looked at <strong>Patrick Ewing’s</strong> first 19 games (<em>why not 18? wanted to complete that one series to make it an even number of playoff off series for the two</em>) in the playoffs. <strong>Ewing</strong> was a great center, but never will he be called the best of his generation, and thus, not up for entry into the pantheon of greatest bigmen ever (though the media has already reserved a spot there for <strong>Bynum</strong>).</p> <p><strong><u><em><font color="#8000ff" size="4">Bynum’s first 18 Playoff games, and how they stack up:</font></em></u></strong></p> <p><strong><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShDoNvARIdI/AAAAAAAABwk/mLfWc4uAH1o/s1600-h/Bynum%20Playoffs%20%28Bynum%20Ewing%20Robinson%29%5B10%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: 0px" title="Bynum Ewing and Robinson" border="0" alt="Bynum Ewing and Robinson" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShDoOT2DjjI/AAAAAAAABwo/rKtQJwl40nA/Bynum%20Playoffs%20%28Bynum%20Ewing%20Robinson%29_thumb%5B8%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="504" height="645" /></a> Ewing</strong> creams <strong>Bynum</strong> statistically. And <strong>Ewing</strong> played in a time where big guys weren’t bailed out with foul shots, and played against much better competition. <strong>Bynum</strong> played against the <strong>Phoenix Suns</strong>, twice anchored in the paint by <strong>Frenchman Boris Diaw;</strong> the injury depleted <strong>Utah Jazz</strong> that was forced to start <strong>Jarron Collins;</strong> and the <strong>Houston Rockets</strong>, who during the course of the series, lost <strong>Yao Ming</strong> to injury a little more than 2 games in – and had to turn to a rotation of <strong>Chuck Hayes</strong>, <strong>Carl Landry</strong> and <strong>Luis Scola</strong> to battle <strong>LA’s</strong> 7 footers. <strong>Bynum</strong> gets killed – <em>just look at the stats</em>. </p> <p>Alas, he is immune to any criticism for a great rebuttal exists: <strong>Ewing</strong> had much more experience from being a guy who actually went to college, won a <strong>National Title</strong>; and also played in the <strong>NBA</strong> for a few seasons before making the playoffs. All this is true, but nothing prevented <strong>Bynum</strong> from going to college himself – if he was really interested in experience. That said, I also took a chance to look at another young bigman, and saw how he faced the <strong>NBA</strong> <strong>pressure</strong>. <strong>David Robinson</strong> did manage to make the playoffs as a rookie (he led his team there, unlike <strong>Bynum</strong> who did his best to stay out of <strong>Kobe’s</strong> way). <strong>David</strong> <strong>Robinson</strong> is far from my favorite player in the world – but he also creams <strong>Bynum’s</strong> numbers when you take out experience and look just at <strong>Bynum’s</strong> FIRST FOUR SEASONS against <strong>David’s</strong> ROOKIE season.</p> <p>Let’s not forget that <strong>David</strong> had to go to war against <strong>Joe Barry</strong> <strong>Carroll</strong> and the plethora of tough guys in the paint that <strong>Portland</strong> sported back when <strong>David</strong> was a rookie. <strong>Bynum</strong>, with 4 years of experience in the <strong>NBA</strong>, has yet to face anything like that in the <strong>NBA playoffs</strong> – and his numbers are completely pathetic.</p> <p><strong>Ewing</strong>: 22.1 ppg, 10.9 rpg, 2.37 bpg</p> <p><strong>Robinson</strong>: 24.4 ppg, 12.00 rpg, 4.00 bpg</p> <p><strong>Bynum</strong>: 4.83 ppg, 3.78 rpg, 0.67 bpg</p> <p>Obviously the data is heavily skewed against poor, young Bynum. His first few playoff sorties were short and he was inexperienced. Obviously the stats are going to go against him when you include some of his early games. The <strong>Bynum</strong> of today is a beast though! Look at Bynum’s numbers from just his 4th season in the playoffs against other greats and you’ll see! You’ll all see!</p> <p><em>Okay, let’s do that then.</em></p> <p><strong><u><em><font color="#8000ff" size="4">Bynum’s Playoff stats from his 4th season, and how those stats stack up:</font></em></u></strong></p> <p><strong><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShDoOljOlMI/AAAAAAAABws/vD5dslCZ-v8/s1600-h/Bynum%20Playoffs%20%28Bynum%20Ostertag%20Olajuwon%29%5B11%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: 0px" title="Bynum closer to Ostertag than Olajuwon" border="0" alt="Bynum closer to Ostertag than Olajuwon" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShDoO-5r0II/AAAAAAAABww/oYUqbLGBarA/Bynum%20Playoffs%20%28Bynum%20Ostertag%20Olajuwon%29_thumb%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="504" height="667" /></a> Bynum’s</strong> numbers improve very slightly, he ups his ppg from 4.83 to 5.58, his free throw percentage from 62.96% to 76.47% and he swats almost 0.2 more blocks per game. Still not impressed. He’s a far cry from, let’s just randomly say, <strong>Hakeem Olajuwon</strong>. In the <strong>Dream’s</strong> 4th NBA season he happened to tear the <strong>NBA playoff’s</strong> a new one with his <strong>scoring</strong> -- 37.5 ppg (57.14 fg%, 88.37 ft%); <strong>rebounding</strong> – 16.75 rpg; and <strong>all around game</strong> – 2.75 bpg, 1.75 apg, 2.25 spg.</p> <p>Not only did <strong>Hakeem</strong> obliterate <strong>Bynum’s</strong> pitiful offensive output by a magnitude nearing 7x, but absolutely owned him all over the boxscore. He also did it against much tougher competition as well.</p> <p>Heck, <strong>Bynum</strong> is so far from being impressive that <strong>Greg</strong> <strong>Ostertag’s</strong> fourth year playoff stats could (and do) give Bynum’s fourth year playoff stats a run for their money. It’s horrible to say, but really <strong>Lakers fans</strong> (and <strong>media</strong>, or is that <em>redundant</em>?) – take a look and weep.</p> <p><strong>Bynum</strong> is a much better offensive player than <strong>Ostertag</strong> (is this even saying anything?), but <strong>Ostertag</strong> owns <strong>Bynum</strong> when it comes to rebounds and blocks. <strong>Greg</strong> even managed to out-assist <strong>Bynum</strong> and made less mistakes (as seen in less turn overs and fouls per game).</p> <p>What’s worse, the fact that <strong>Bynum</strong> just got his lunch handed to him by <strong>Ostertag;</strong> or the fact that <strong>Ostertag</strong> was doing this against super duper vets and talented players like <strong>Vlade</strong>, <strong>Arvydas</strong>, <strong>Dale Davis</strong> and <strong>Rasheed</strong> (when <strong>Ostertag</strong> was a 4th year player) – and looking better than media adored <strong>Bynum </strong>going up against <strong>Chuck Hayes</strong> and the guy who was behind <strong>Ostertag</strong> on the depth chart? </p> <p>Furthermore, <strong>Bynum’s</strong> had 5 scoreless games in the playoffs, out of 18. And he’s scored less than 5 points 11 times out of 18. <strong><u><em>Ouch</em></u></strong>.</p> <p>Take a look at <strong>Hakeem’s</strong> 37.5 ppg average again. <strong><u><em>Ouch</em></u></strong>.</p> <p>Of course, there HAS to be a rebuttal for this . . . no way can <strong>Bynum</strong> been so far behind <strong>Hakeem</strong> at the same stage of NBA experience, and yet so close to <strong>NBA laughingstock Greg Ostertag</strong> . . . right?&#160; . . . .right? Don’t worry <strong>Lakers fans</strong>, of course there is . . . forget about <strong>NBA experience</strong>, that’s a flawed concept. Let’s not forget that <strong>Hakeem</strong> and <strong>Greg</strong> both played college ball (like <strong>Ewing</strong> and <strong>Robinson</strong> did) . . . <strong>Bynum</strong> didn’t play college. Look at how young he is! He’s only 21! Surely when you take that into account it makes up for 32 ppg (in the case of <strong>Hakeem</strong>), or nearly a block and a half (in the case of <strong>Ostertag</strong>)!!!</p> <p>Okay, let’s take at a look at that. <em>Try me</em>.</p> <p><strong><u><em><font color="#8000ff" size="4">Bynum’s Playoff stats as a 21 year old, and how those stats stack up against another 21 year old:</font></em></u></strong></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShDoPEudzAI/AAAAAAAABw0/Y60ZRR_DrR8/s1600-h/Bynum%20Playoffs%20%28Bynum%20ONeal%29%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: 0px" title="Bynum is a far cry from Shaq when looking at their stats at age 21" border="0" alt="Bynum is a far cry from Shaq when looking at their stats at age 21" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShDoPZf2nfI/AAAAAAAABw4/rSKV0dVNJ1w/Bynum%20Playoffs%20%28Bynum%20ONeal%29_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="398" height="769" /></a> <strong>Bynum</strong> is a very brittle 21 year old who doesn’t have to do anything, and his team makes it to the NBA Finals. I’m not lying, the <strong>Lakers</strong> did that last season. That said, <strong>Bynum</strong> is a force of nature, and the future of the center position in the <strong>NBA.</strong> His 21 year old production is unrivaled. Right? Wrong. Take a look at this guy, and what he did in the playoffs at the tender age of 21 (his 2nd season in the L, not his 4th like <strong>Bynum</strong>). I just have one hyphenated word to describe this: <strong>Shaq-Attaq</strong>.</p> <p>A lot of the same <strong>Lakers</strong> <strong>fans</strong> who champion <strong>Bynum</strong> marginalize how great <strong>Shaq</strong> was. I can clearly see why <strong>Kobe</strong> went out of his way to suggest that <strong>Bynum</strong> needed to be traded – because <strong>Kobe</strong> knew how good <strong>Shaq</strong> was. The difference between the two is quite telling when you look at these two centers at the age of 21, <strong>Bynum</strong> in his 4th season and <strong>Shaq</strong> in his 2nd.</p> <p>The difference between the two was almost 15 points, 10 rebounds and over 2 blocks and almost 2 assists . . . in favor of the 2nd year player.</p> <p>That’s a huge difference.</p> <p>The difference between being called one of the best bigmen of all time, and being called a bust.</p> <p><strong>Bynum</strong> was a <strong>lotto pick man</strong>, and aside from his inspired dirty play in injuring two guys this season, and being afraid of <strong>Fesenko</strong> in the paint, he’s done nothing to earn the high praise that’s heaped on him. And he’s done nothing to make me feel like giving him any props.</p> <p>His current playoff run isn’t over yet, and he’s got one, most likely two more playoff series to make his <strong>2008-2009 playoffs</strong> slightly more memorable than his complete <strong>no-show in the 2007-2008 playoffs</strong>. </p> <p>I’m taking it easy on <strong>Bynum</strong> here by comparing him to guys that he may yet one-day reach . . . even if it doesn’t seem like it. I could really try to down him if I wanted by comparing him to his contemporaries who are out-playing him right now. For example take <strong>Dwight Howard --</strong> in his first 14 playoff games: 17.86 ppg (57.23 fg%, 51.72 ft%), 15.5 rpg, 2.71 bpg, 1.14 apg, 0.714 spg . . . those numbers are way better than Bynum’s. Also better are <strong>Dwight’s</strong> numbers as a 21 year old and <strong>Dwight’s</strong> numbers in his 4th NBA season.</p> <p>If I really wanted to be a dick I’d mention that <strong>Dwight</strong> also has 3 less leg injuries. I’m not a dick though, so I’m not going to mention that.</p> <p>&#160;</p> <p>&#160;</p> <p><strong><u><em><font color="#8000ff" size="4">What did we learn?</font></em></u></strong></p> <p>What did we learn? Well, for starters we learned that <strong>Andrew Bynum’s</strong> playoff performances leave much to be desired. His first 18 games in the playoffs pales in comparison to <strong>Ewing’s</strong> numbers over the same situations – and <strong>Ewing</strong> played against much better defensive clubs like <strong>Michael’s</strong> <strong>Bulls</strong> and the <strong>Bad Boy Pistons</strong>. We learned that <strong>David Robinson’s</strong> <strong>rookie</strong> season playoff numbers invalidates the argument that <strong>Bynum’s</strong> rookie numbers shouldn’t count. We also learned that <strong>Hakeem’s</strong> numbers as a fourth year player completely eclipse <strong>Bynum’s</strong> as a 4th year player. I didn’t even have to look up<strong> 2nd tier NBA centers</strong> like <strong>Rik Smits</strong> at all after I found out that at the same level of <strong>NBA</strong> experience that <strong>Greg Ostertag’s</strong> playoff performance was a wash with that of <strong>Bynum’s</strong>. Lastly, we learned that <strong>Bynum</strong> can’t even hide behind his age as an excuse for how poor his performances have been – as <strong>Shaq</strong> as a 21 year old eats <strong>Bynum</strong> up. <strong>Ultimately, we learned that it’s a bit too premature to call Bynum anything other than a bust at this stage.</strong> He’s much closer to <strong>Ostertag</strong>, <em>albeit one who rebounds and blocks less, and fouls and turns the ball over more</em>, than he is to being one of the greatest bigmen of all time – let alone in his own generation. </p> <p>After all, <strong>Dwight’s</strong> numbers at each break down (first <em>x number</em> of games, 4th NBA season, and at age 21) are vastly superior to <strong>Bynum’s</strong>. Oh yeah, also <strong>Bynum</strong> has a history of injury problems to the same parts of his body and young guys who sustain so many injuries in short succession tend to have injury plagued careers. Yeah, I wasn’t supposed to mention that again . . . I guess <u>I am</u> a dick after all.</p> <p><strong>Bynum</strong> doesn’t deserve his hype until he does something. Something other than sucking when it counts, that is.</p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="730" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="728">If you liked the stat breakdown, and would like a full version at full resolution, click on the image below. I dunno, maybe you are just into making Bynum look silly . . . or want a stat heavy window’s desktop wallpaper . . . or both? Go nuts!</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="728"><a href="http://api.photoshop.com/home_2b9cfd5172294a0486be51ca0d78a064/adobe-px-assets/1793cbd39442464ea523faeb7715d692" target="_blank"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="Click to view in full resolution" border="0" alt="Click to view in full resolution" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShDoQKE9SpI/AAAAAAAABxo/CNC62QIjhpE/Bynum%20Playoffs%20%28Full%20Table%29%5B10%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="644" height="363" /></a> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-6555509494266024592009-05-17T16:09:00.001-04:002009-05-17T16:09:49.448-04:00Utah Jazz 2008-2009 Season in Review (Part 1): The Season that was . . .<p>. . . a major disappointment? . . . a serious step back? . . . a comedy of errors? . . . a season to forget? . . . the last season for this core group?</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShBvBthZhXI/AAAAAAAABwA/ipl2jomGHuM/s1600-h/homerepicfailps2%5B6%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="aka our 0809 season" border="0" alt="aka our 0809 season" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShBvB-ugGAI/AAAAAAAABwE/2JD1qPKGTYg/homerepicfailps2_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="309" height="250" /></a> More than we’d like to admit, this last season was all of the above. You can probably think of a lot more ways to describe the <strong>2008-2009 NBA Season</strong> for the <strong>Utah Jazz</strong> as well. I don’t like harping on past mistakes, as I feel that a more progressive, forwarding thinking attitude gets results. I did take a serious break <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/04/round-1-game-5-postmortem-game-over-man.html" target="_blank">between the end of Game 5</a><strong></strong>, <em>the end of our season</em>, and now. In that time I wanted to have a chance to cleanse my palate of <strong>Jazz basketball</strong> so that when I get into the swing of blogging again (starting now) that I will not be writing from a skewed point of view – one filled with more emotion and less logic than it deserved. Games where your team gets eliminated in tend to magnify specific aspects of the team, the roster, and the coaching which steer fans opinions to extremes – extremes that would not logically make sense if the season was viewed as more than just that elimination game – but the entire months long journey that it really was. Sure, elimination games are important – look at all of the <strong>Ronnie Price</strong> love on <strong>Jazz</strong> <strong>message boards</strong> and <strong>blogs</strong> after his energized performance in the second half of <strong>Game 5</strong>, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. <strong>Ronnie Price</strong> wouldn’t have single handedly fixed all of the problems the <strong>Lakers</strong> exposed if he played more.</p> <p>I like how most of the other <strong>blogs</strong> did take the time to go straight into the ‘<em>where did we go wrong’</em> and player analyses after the <strong>Jazz</strong> were eliminated. I enjoy other peoples’ points of views, though you can read that some of the player analysis were, <u><em>indeed</em></u>, fueled partly by emotion and recent memories. (After all, as fans we tend to be more a ‘what have you done for me lately’ group of people) I even had the opportunity to contribute with player write ups for the much maligned duo of <a href="http://www.slcdunk.com/2009/5/7/868781/q-what-does-fes-stand-for-a-a-new" target="_blank"><strong>Kyrylo Fesenko</strong></a> and <a href="http://www.slcdunk.com/2009/5/4/864843/free-mo-almond" target="_blank"><strong>Morris Almond</strong></a> at <strong>Jazz juggernaut </strong><a href="http://www.slcdunk.com/" target="_blank"><strong>SLC Dunk</strong></a><strong>.</strong> (Thanks <a href="mailto:basketballjohn@gmail.com" target="_blank">BBall John</a>!) That said, I think now is the right time to get back to business here at All That Jazz.</p> <p>Where to start? How about with me? We fans on the internet take the opportunity to type out our opinions and hold players, coaches and the front office accountable for their failings. I’m going to start up by looking at what I thought our team would do, and compare it with what the team did do. </p> <p><strong><u><font color="#400080" size="5">My prediction for total number of wins:</font></u></strong></p> <p>Back in <strong>October</strong> I went out on a limb and suggested that our team would <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/utah-jazz-2008-2009-season-preview.html" target="_blank">finish the season having won 65 total games</a> (regular season and playoffs). Boy, did I get that one wrong! Injuries, road woes and the inability to focus against lesser teams aside, the <strong>2008-2009 Jazz</strong> only won 49 games (and that’s including the measly 1 playoff game that the <strong>Jazz</strong> won). Not only is that a far cry from what I felt like our talented roster was capable of (<a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/08/returning-to-promised-land.html" target="_blank">probably our most talented roster ever</a>), but a far cry from the last two seasons where the <strong>Jazz</strong> won 60 games each (<strong>2006-2007</strong>: 51 regular season + 9 playoffs, <strong>2007-2008</strong>: 54 regular season + 6 playoffs). [<strong><font color="#400080">And let’s be perfectly honest, 65 wins total was not a completely insane number, as the Jazz for the last few seasons were dropping games against the T-Wolves, Kings, Bobcats, Pacers and Knicks . . . that’s 5 wins right there to go from 60 to 65</font></strong>] There are reasons why the <strong>Jazz</strong> won less than 50 games – <u><em>serious reasons</em></u> – but that does not change the fact that I was dead wrong in my prediction for the <strong>Jazz</strong>. Wrong by a total of 16 games or (<em>Hyperbole alert</em>) basically the difference between the 2nd seed and the 5th seed in the <strong>Eastern Conference</strong>.&#160; </p> <p>I felt as though the <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/09/flashback-friday-first-20-games-of.html" target="_blank">first 20 games of the season were the key</a>. (As having a great start to the season, 13+ wins in the first 20 games, is a very strong predictor of having a solid season, as seen in the last few years) <strong>Utah</strong> would be <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/deron-williams-injury-isn-going-to-hurt.html" target="_blank">playing without <strong>Deron</strong>, or at best, a severely hobbled one</a>. Looking at the schedule I still felt as though the <strong>Jazz</strong> would win 15 games out of their first 20. I was wrong as the <strong>Jazz</strong> only won 12. That was exactly how many games the <strong>Jazz</strong> won back to start the <strong>2002-2003 NBA Season</strong> – a season that finished astonishingly similarly to this one. Here’s what I said back then:</p> <p align="center"><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/09/flashback-friday-first-20-games-of.html" target="_blank"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="Utah Jazz first 20 games 2002-2003 season write up" border="0" alt="Utah Jazz first 20 games 2002-2003 season write up" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShBvCNCbHqI/AAAAAAAABwI/-7vw3Kd1SzI/UtahJazzfirst20games20022003seasonwr.jpg?imgmax=800" width="639" height="288" /></a> </p> <p align="left">Avoiding the low hanging fruit that could be “<strong>Deron Williams</strong> and <strong>Carlos Boozer’s</strong> last game together”, our team was bounced in 5 by the <strong>LA Lakers</strong> and finished the season <strong>48-34</strong>. Perhaps years from now <strong>NBA historians</strong> will look back at this season as another season in transition. That would just suck though, as that means we’re back to <a href="http://www.shopsquareone.com/viewstores.asp" target="_blank">square one</a> after 7 seasons. Well, the silver lining is that this season proved my point that the first 20 games of the season are a very strong indicator for seasonal success for the <strong>Jazz, </strong>even if my ability to predict wins are significantly off.</p> <p align="left"><u><font color="#400080" size="5"><strong>My pre-season predictions of our roster:</strong></font></u></p> <p align="left"><strong><u><font color="#0080ff"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShBvCX2IKKI/AAAAAAAABwM/3ibEqVKO-gw/s1600-h/Deron%20Ronnie%20CJ%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Here two starting wings help out Deron Williams in ways that none of them every concieved that they&#39;d have to." border="0" alt="Here two starting wings help out Deron Williams in ways that none of them every concieved that they&#39;d have to." align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShBvClGJq2I/AAAAAAAABwQ/n7_Zgdq7f6M/Deron%20Ronnie%20CJ_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="180" height="279" /></a> <font size="3">Star Player:</font></font></u></strong> As far as no brainers go, I selected <strong>Deron Williams</strong> as our <strong><a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/08/10-things-other-point-guards-do-better.html" target="_blank">Star Player</a></strong>. <em>Duh</em>. We played our absolute best when he was at his absolute best. We played our worst when he played his worst. Nothing else really needs to be said. My predictions were pretty much on point for the rest of the team as well. </p> <p align="left"><strong><u><font color="#0080ff" size="3">Position Spotlight:</font></u></strong> I chose our <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/08/making-guard.html" target="_blank">Shooting Guards for the position spotlight</a>, and I think that for most of the season this was a fairly solid, yet unspectacular group of guards. Sadly, my predictions for the best case and worst case scenarios seemed to come true for <strong>Ronnie</strong>, <strong>Kyle, C.J.</strong> and <strong>Morris</strong>. <strong>Brewer</strong> did earn a title and rep as a defensive stopper (and got called for fouling a lot less), and was able to keep some defenses honest with his outside shooting in the regular season. In the playoffs he wasn’t even defended and I am beginning to feel like his current skill set may be better suited as a<strong> Small Forward</strong> on offense. <strong>Kyle</strong> did improve his defense as the season went on, but due to a variety of reasons his shooting percentages did taper off and his over-all importance with the team appeared to be reduced during crunch time. <strong>C.J</strong>. would put it all together during stretches of the season – being a very solid shooter and defender, yet disappear in other games altogether. He did become a starter, but lingering doubts about his true value to a championship contender exist. Nothing really right happened for <strong>Almond</strong> this season, and as I wrote, “his inability to be a complete player negates his technically proficient scoring skills” – and he did not get significant playing time with our club for the second straight season. In the playoffs none of our guards could make shots . . . a major point of that position spotlight was the search for a ‘<strong><u>making guard’</u></strong>, as more than a dozen shooting guards have been auditioned in our system over the years. Our problems at this spot appear to be in just a similar state of flux as they have been for the last few seasons. Things are better, but not completely satisfied – and that’s a problem when this is the number one skill position in the <strong>NBA</strong> right now (<strong>Kobe</strong>, <strong>Wade</strong>, even guys like <strong>Kevin Martin</strong> and <strong>Jamal Crawford</strong> give us the business when we play them).</p> <p align="left"><strong><u><font color="#0080ff" size="3">Top Transaction of the Off-Season:</font></u></strong> As far as our current roster needs were at the start of the season (need for <strong>defensive big</strong>, <strong>defensive wing</strong>, and <strong>solid back up PG</strong> to spell <strong>Deron</strong>), I felt like the <strong>Jazz brass</strong> really only addressed one. They have been drafting <strong>project bigmen</strong> for a while (three 7 footers in the last 2 drafts) and feel as though our wings can develop into good wing defenders (<strong>Brewer</strong>, for one did) – so the <strong>Jazz brass</strong> focused on the <strong>back up PG</strong> issue. <strong>Kevin</strong> <strong>O’Connor</strong> turned a really bad player into a potentially very useful player. <a href="http://www.slcdunk.com/2009/5/14/875507/good-knight" target="_blank">Clearly <strong>Brevin Knight</strong> was an upgrade over <strong>Jason Hart</strong>, right</a>? Based on this premise I felt as though this was <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/utah-jazz-pre-season-2008-2009-top.html" target="_blank">the top transaction of the off season</a>. Even though <strong>Knight</strong> didn’t perform as well as we hoped, I still stand fast with this selection as the other moves did not make much of a difference this season. (Matched the offer for <strong>C.J.</strong> – maybe <strong>Korver</strong> would have been a better starter? Drafted <strong>Kosta</strong>, who didn’t even get a chance to play this season.) Of course, I have to come clean, as hindsight is 20/20, and say that while this was still the top transaction that it still wasn’t a good one. <strong>Knight</strong> turned the ball over too often for a guy who was advertized as a savvy vet who did not make mistakes with the ball. He had a stretch of over a week without a made FG. He played worse than an ancient <strong>Derek Fisher</strong> in the playoffs. Yet, he was cheaper than <strong>Jason Hart</strong>, and his deal is off the books now.</p> <p><strong><u><font color="#0080ff" size="3"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShBvC6ZJolI/AAAAAAAABwU/ZbAlIXuiUKw/s1600-h/koufos_627_080728%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="Thanks NBA photographer person! Thanks for all the silly rookie poses!" border="0" alt="Thanks NBA photographer person! Thanks for all the silly rookie poses!" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/ShBvDJtGslI/AAAAAAAABwY/Gw2TBX3x6X4/koufos_627_080728_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="309" height="383" /></a> Top Position Battle:</font></u></strong> On paper the <strong>Jazz</strong> are a pretty solid group with a well defined rotation. <strong>Deron</strong> plays the lion’s share of minutes at the point; there’s a legion of similarly talented (in relative terms) wing players that can be shuttled in and out; and <strong>Boozer</strong>, <strong>Memo</strong> and <strong>Millsap</strong> handle most of the minutes in the paint. The only big question mark was <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/utah-jazz-pre-season-2008-2009-position.html" target="_blank">back-up center, and that’s exactly how I felt going into this last season</a>. As fate would have it, this battle became a battle of attrition as at times, as there was no back-up. <strong>Collins</strong> was injured for most of the season recovering from his hilarious <strong>Golf Cart accident</strong>. (And yes, his twin brother was also involved) <strong>Fesenko</strong> had <strong>Work VISA</strong> trouble which required him to leave the team, <em>and <strong>country</strong></em>, in the middle of a road trip (that did not involve playing the <strong>Raptors</strong>). And <strong>Kosta</strong>, well, he was diagnosed early with <em><strong>rookieplayingforJerrySloanitis</strong></em>. The season ended with <strong>Jarron Collins</strong> starting in 3 of the last 5 games; <strong>Fesenko</strong> active, but collecting DNP-CD’s; and <strong>Koufos</strong> sitting behind the bench in a suit. If anything, this is exactly how the most disappointing season in recent memory should have ended. More precisely, this is exactly the opposite of what should have happened. </p> <p><strong>Collins</strong> is clearly at a state of greatly diminishing returns in his career. <strong>Sloan</strong> trusts him, but this isn’t exactly the best way to get your young centers a chance to improve. Sure – <strong>Collins</strong> has experience that guys like <strong>Kosta</strong> and <strong>Kyrylo</strong> do not have, but he got that experience by actually playing in and starting games as a rookie. Don’t believe me? <a href="http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/collija03.html" target="_blank">Look it up</a>! (If you didn’t click on that link please do so . . . and forward that link to guys like <strong>Sloan</strong>, <strong>Locke</strong>, <strong>Siler</strong> and crew) <strong>Fes</strong> has all the size, strength and athleticism to, at the very least, slow down bigs and discourage guard penetration. He’s not great on offense, but he’s not taking shots he can’t make (58 fg% would only be higher if he actually threw down half of the amazing dunks he attempts). <strong>Kosta</strong> has the work ethic, offensive polish (he was taking <strong>Brand</strong> and <strong>Dalembert</strong> off the dribble and scoring inside with nifty hooks in the 8th game of the season), superb shot blocking instincts and willingness to improve – basically he should have *won* out this position battle for the back-up center spot . . . though he was not even allowed to compete. Silly. </p> <p><font color="#400080">Don’t call me a crazy homer if I suggest that having a young guy like <strong>Kosta</strong> or <strong>Fes</strong> ready to contribute in the playoffs by playing regularly in regular season games wouldn’t have helped a teeny tiny bit against the <strong>Lakers</strong> (<strong>Gasol</strong>, <strong>Odom</strong>, <strong>Bynum</strong>) when <strong>Memo</strong> was injured and out of action. The rebuttal that I’ve gotten from the <strong>Utah Jazz press</strong> is that our club is in a win now mode, and doing so may have resulted in a variety of losses that would have put us out of the playoffs. <strong><u><em>Really</em></u>?</strong> Is that the worst thing that could have happened – we would have missed out on getting embarrassed by the <strong>Lakers in 5 games</strong>? <strong>The Risk</strong>, in this case, clearly does not match up with <strong>the reward</strong> of having a useful back up center who can play defense where we are notoriously poor – in the paint. That’s why we have to double with a wing, leaving three point shooters open . . . because we can’t guard other teams bigs in single coverage because you just can’t defend a guy like <strong>Gasol</strong> or <strong>Bynum</strong> with a 6’8 guy like <strong>Millsap</strong> or 6’7 <strong>Harpring. Hence, the SOLUTION to our inability to stop threes is rooted in the INABILITY to stop inside play – we need better INTERIOR DEFENSE!!!</strong></font></p> <p><strong><u><font color="#0080ff" size="3">Break-Out Player:</font></u></strong> While I <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/utah-jazz-pre-season-2008-2009-breakout.html" target="_blank">felt as though there were a few qualified candidates, it was either going to be <strong>Korver </strong>or <strong>Millsap</strong></a>. And as this season went along (complete with the near-annual 40+ game injury to <strong>Carlos Boozer</strong>) <strong>Millsap</strong> had plenty of opportunities to really break out. I was really surprised by <strong>Kyle’s</strong> lack of improvement on offense this season – I really felt as though he would have proven the <strong>Hornacek hypothesis</strong> (that even a gifted offensive player who is traded to the <strong>Jazz</strong> gets better after a training camp with the team). He has an injury to his shooting hand, so I can give him a break. It doesn’t really matter though, as <strong>Millsap</strong> was predicted to break out, and that’s exactly what he did.</p> <p><strong><u><font color="#0080ff" size="3">X-Factor:</font></u></strong> The <strong>X-Factor</strong> for your team can pretty much make or break your season. Strangely enough, a lot of teams come to rely on these decidedly non-stars to be the true barometer of how well they play. For example, the <strong>Boston Celtics</strong> have three huge names in <strong>Kevin Garnett</strong>, <strong>Paul</strong> <strong>Pierce</strong> and <strong>Ray Allen</strong> – though it is <strong>Rajon Rond</strong>o who powers them to wins. Back before the season started <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/utah-jazz-pre-season-2008-2009-x-factor.html" target="_blank">I dubbed <strong>Andrei Kirilenko</strong> as the team’s X-Factor this year</a>. When he was healthy and anchoring out <strong>2nd unit</strong> the <strong>Jazz</strong> were quite capable of winning games against better teams. When he was playing poorly, he left a hole in too many places. Surely <strong>Andrei</strong> was not as important as <strong>Deron Williams</strong> – <strong>Deron</strong> has the talent and stature to lead the team and will them to wins. The <strong>X-Factor</strong>, on the other hand, is capable only of preventing losses. Andrei wasn’t a huge game changer this season (his MPG keeps going down), but when he had a <strong>good game</strong> the <a href="http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/pgl.cgi?player=kirilan01&amp;year=2009" target="_blank">Jazz’ record was 28-7.</a> That’s an 80% win percentage. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that correlation and causation are completely different aspects of any result; hence, the necessity to understand that HE may not be completely responsible for that winning percentage, but when HE is involved and having a <strong>good game</strong> (<em>as defined as close to a double double; or a good shooting percentage and scoring 10+ ppg in 22+ mins; or having at least 5 points, rebounds and assists and a combined 3+ of threes, steals and blocks; or any other combination of having a solid game off the bench</em>) the <strong>Jazz</strong> are a very hard team to beat. </p> <p>Basically, I was right about these things, even if I was really wrong about how many wins the Jazz would get.</p> <p><u><font color="#400080" size="5"><strong>My pre-season predictions of our rotation:</strong></font></u></p> <p>Because I’m just really super-duper into the <strong>Jazz</strong> <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/utah-jazz-2008-2009-playing-time-and.html" target="_blank">I took the time to plot out how many MPG each player on the team would get this season</a>, and I ended up being pretty accurate on this as well. Wow, go me.</p> <p><strong><u><font color="#0080ff" size="3">Called it! (off by less than 2 mpg):</font></u></strong> </p> <ul> <li>Last season <strong>Deron</strong> played 37.3 mpg, and I suggested that with added PG depth that his MPG would go down, but only slightly. I had him in at 37 mpg, and this season he averaged 36.8 mpg. Yeah, <strong><u>called it.</u></strong> That was a difference in only 0.2 mpg. </li> <li><strong>Morris</strong> <strong>Almond</strong> played 4.3 mpg in his rookie season and I felt like he would pretty much double that, and I suggested that he would play 9 mpg. This season he ended up playing 10.2 mpg, a difference of only 1.2 mpg. That’s pretty darn close for projecting the playing time for a guy who was a rookie playing less than 5 mpg. </li> <li>I felt like <strong>Memo</strong> needed more MPG, more than his 33.2 mpg from last season. I said 35 mpg, and he ended up playing 33.5 – a slight increase, but for me, still a difference of less than 2 mpg (1.5). </li> <li>Lastly, my hate for <strong>Jarron Collins</strong> (<em>as a player</em>) showed up by me plotting his mpg to go down from 10 mpg to 6. <strong>Jerry</strong> compromised and played him 7.7 mpg – meaning I was only off by 1.7 mpg.</li> </ul> <p><strong><u><font color="#0080ff" size="3">Pretty Close (2-3 mpg off):</font></u></strong>&#160; </p> <ul> <li>Last season for the <strong>Clippers Brevin Knight</strong> played 22.6 mpg, and I had him playing 10.5 mpg for the <strong>Jazz</strong>. He ended up playing 12.7 mpg, making me miss calling it by the smallest of margins, and putting my prediction for him in the pretty close range: 2.2 mpg off. I think that’s pretty amazing, especially because we had no idea how much he would play as he was traded for. </li> <li>I went <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/things-to-look-for-this-season-matt.html" target="_blank">through the trouble to chart out <strong>Matt Harpring's</strong> decline last pre-season</a>, and had him pegged for a fall from 18.1 mpg down to 13.5. <strong>Ol’Jer</strong> one upped me and dropped him down to 11 mpg. Putting me off on my estimation by 2.5 mpg.</li> <li><strong>Carlos Boozer</strong> played in 34.9 mpg last season, and I just rounded that up to 35 mpg. Alas, this past season was not a good one for him, and his mpg actually dropped to 32.4 – putting me 2.6 mpg off.</li> </ul> <p><strong><u><font color="#0080ff" size="3">Missed it by thiiiiis much (3-5 mpg off):</font></u></strong>&#160; </p> <ul> <li>Last season for the <strong>Jazz Kyle Korver</strong> played in 21.5 mpg, and I just couldn’t find that much more space for him on the floor – so I put him on the schedule for 21 mpg. <strong>Jerry</strong> found a way to play him half the game (24 mpg), making me 3 mpg off on my prediction.</li> <li><strong>Ronnie Brewer</strong> really took off this season, having played only 27.5 mpg last season I had upped his time on the floor to 29 mpg. <strong>WRONG</strong>! He ended up playing 32.2 mpg, making me miss the mark&#160; by 3.2 mpg.</li> <li><strong>Big Fes</strong> only played 7.8 mpg as a rookie, and with the advancing decline of <strong>Collins</strong> (in at least in my mind) had him set to play 11 mpg for the <strong>Jazz</strong> this season. Of course, <strong>Jerry</strong> found a way in a season when we were desperately in need of healthy bigs, to play him <strong>LESS mpg than in his rookie season</strong>: 7.4 mpg! Making me, and many <strong>Fesenko</strong> fans, 3.6 mpg off of where we thought he should be playing.</li> <li>On the opposite side of the spectrum, <strong>Ronnie Price</strong> played 9.6 mpg last season, and I felt that he would only receive a marginal increase (due to the injury situation for <strong>Deron</strong>), and bumped him up to 10 mpg. <strong>Price</strong> had to start a lot longer than we would have wanted to begin the season, and ended up playing 14.2 mpg this season – making me miss the mark by 4.2 mpg.</li> </ul> <p><strong><u><font color="#0080ff" size="3">Way Off (5+ mpg off):</font></u></strong>&#160; </p> <ul> <li><strong>C.J. Miles</strong> is quite an enigma. I didn’t know he was going to start, and when I knew he would, I didn’t know that he was going to play so much. Last season he played 11.5 mpg, and I projected him to play 16 mpg – while giving <strong>AK</strong> more playing time with the starters during crunch time. <strong>C.J.</strong> ended up playing 22.5 mpg for the <strong>Jazz</strong> this last season, making me underestimate him by 6.5 mpg.</li> <li>Perhaps I was a little too mean on <strong>Kosta Koufos</strong>. I surely didn’t expect him to average double digit mpg as a rookie for <strong>Jerry Sloan</strong>. I felt like he’d see more time than <strong>Mobe</strong> did, but less than <strong>Fes</strong> – around 5 mpg. He ended up playing 11.8 mpg this season! <strong>Wow</strong>! Putting me off by 6.8 mpg – to my credit, though, I would have played him a few hundred more minutes this season than he did end up playing – even if it would be at only 5 mpg over-all.</li> <li>Speaking of underestimating, I did not expect <strong>Millsap</strong> to be such a beast this year. To me he was a guy best suited as an energy player off the bench who was good enough to start. Now I see him as a potential starter on most, if not all, teams in the league. Last season he played 20.8 mpg and I felt like he could handle playing nearly half the game, at 23 mpg. He was pressed into handling a whole lot more, and finished the season averaging 30.1 mpg – making me wrong by 7.1 mpg.</li> <li>Last, and most wrong, was my highly optimistic and overly-generous use of <strong>Andrei</strong>. Last season he played 30.8 mpg and had an okay season. After looking at the stats I felt like this was too low, in terms of what he can produce for the <strong>Jazz</strong>. Excuse me for wanting our highest paid player to try to earn his paycheck. I bumped up his mpg to 37 – <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/flashback-friday-andrei-back-when-he.html" target="_blank">where he is absolutely a monster</a>. Of course, <strong>CJ</strong> ate away a lot of minutes at the <strong>SF</strong>, and <strong>Andrei</strong> actually averaged less mpg than the season before (one of 4 guys in our key rotation who did so). <strong>Andrei</strong> only played 27.3 mpg which is really low for a guy being paid so much. I’m not advocating just playing him based on his pay, but playing him based on what he can do with those minutes. Andrei didn’t get enough burn, we lost a lot of games, and I was 9.7 mpg off on my estimation of him.</li> </ul> <p>I’d like to give myself a passing grade here, as 7 of the 15 players (<strong>Deron, Morris, Mehmet, Jarron, Brevin, Matt</strong> and <strong>Carlos</strong>) were within one standard deviation (plus or minus 2.688724) of the net difference between my projected MPG and the actual 2008-2009 MPG. Another four (<strong>Kyle</strong>, <strong>Ronnie B, Kyrylo</strong> and <strong>Ronnie P)</strong> were within two standard deviations – putting that number up to 11/15. The only major outlier was <strong>Andrei</strong> (three standard deviations was 8.066172 – and he was off by 9.7), and this can be easily explained by the fact that <strong>Jerry Sloan</strong> has no idea what he’s doing with him, and I’m a serious <strong>Andrei</strong> homer.</p> <p><u><font color="#400080" size="5"><strong>Conclusion:</strong></font></u></p> <p>Over-all, my first year as a <strong>blogger</strong> went okay. I had an okay ability to predict trends, events and identify important roles for our players. Hey, I even predicted that <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/things-to-look-for-this-season-ronnie.html" target="_blank">at some point during the season <strong>Ronnie Price</strong> would beat our <strong>Brevin Knight</strong> for 2nd on the PG depth chart</a> – too bad it took the last half of the season for that to come true! I need to improve on my consistency in blogging (but hey, the number of posts I put out seems to be inversely proportional to my sex life . . . either way it’s win-win for me). I enjoyed blogging and will continue to do so until something really crazy happens. (Like the release of a long awaited video game, for example) The worst part of this entire year was that my pathetic blog ended up being more successful than the <strong>Jazz</strong> this season. Hopefully this will not be the cast next year . . . to all the loyal readers, <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/youtube-tuesdays-we-number-three.html" target="_blank">thanks for sticking with me and through all the episodic, erratic postings</a>. There’s a lot of work yet to be done, for the team and this blog. For starters, expect Part 2 of the season in review later on this week! In the meantime, here’s another reason why I felt like AK didn’t get enough PT this last year:</p> <div align="center"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="482" align="center"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="480"><object style='width:470px;height:406px;' width='470' height='406' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' data='http://www.myvideo.de/movie/2886069'><param name="movie" value="http://www.myvideo.de/movie/2886069"></param><param name="AllowFullscreen" value="true"></param><param name="AllowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.myvideo.de/movie/2886069" width="470" height="406"></embed></object></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="480">Woo! Abject Homerism for the win!</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-85126925583585194662009-04-28T12:18:00.001-04:002009-04-28T12:24:32.317-04:00Round 1, Game 5 Postmortem: Game over man . . . game over<p><img style="display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px" height="296" src="http://www.globalnerdy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/game_over_press_start.jpg" width="370" align="left" />The <strong>Lakers</strong>, the vastly better team, won in <strong>5 games</strong>. The final score of each of their wins and the final tally of wins (4 to 1) display a level of dominance that I believe marginalizes how close some of the games were. Perhaps in another world (or on game consoles) fans will be able to see how these two teams would match up if both were healthy (<strong>CJ</strong> with injury to shooting hand, hence bricking shot after shot; <strong>Memo</strong> injured hammy, slower than ever, only played in 2 games).</p> <p><strong>Kobe</strong> didn’t have to do it all, and his team still won. The <strong>LA</strong> <strong>crowd</strong> was also placated by tacos, <em>we hope</em>. It seems like the <strong>NBA head office</strong> really wanted this series to end soon, as the 5th game was on the same night that some teams were still playing their 4th game. Furthermore, when this game got dangerously close in the 4th, and after making it 6 points and with the <strong>Jazz</strong> having momentum, they were not able to get to the FT line the rest of the way (last 3 mins in a close game). This fact is odd when you look at how aggressive the <strong>Jazz</strong> were in the paint in the <strong>4th quarter</strong> (and how odd it is that <strong>Odom</strong> can get a three point play on the other way with zero contact from <strong>Korver</strong> – and then yell and scream about it without getting a T, but <strong>Price</strong> gets one for looking at <strong>Fisher</strong>). I’m not going to blame the refs, it’s not <strong>Steve Javie’s</strong> fault that the <strong>Lakers</strong> were up 22 points on <strong>Utah</strong>. (After all, <strong>Javie</strong> almost stopped a <strong>Lakers</strong> fast break by himself)</p> <p>This is a fitting end to the season though. I’m happy that it’s over – now I can concentrate on going nuts for the <strong>draft</strong> like last year.</p> <p><strong>Deron Williams</strong> struggled with his shot all series long (a product of not getting any rest?), and <strong>Boozer</strong> was a virtual no show. <strong>Price</strong>, <strong>Millsap</strong> and <strong>Kirilenko</strong> all brought it in this game – perhaps a little too little, a little too late. <strong>Sloan’s</strong> sub patterns are insane right now . . . <strong>Harpring</strong> defending PFs, not using <strong>Kirilenko</strong> at all in the 4th quarter of two games. (in the series he was the only guy to really make <strong>Kobe</strong> miss jumpers)</p> <p>Sad to see <strong>Hot Rod</strong> hang up the mic, but it’s a changing of the guard in <strong>Utah</strong> right now.</p> <p>A fitting end . . . of this chapter of the <strong>Jazz</strong>. </p> <p>(RIP <strong>LHM</strong>)</p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-48007750902249777902009-04-27T19:49:00.001-04:002009-04-27T19:49:16.796-04:00If it’s going to end tonight . . .<p>. . . end it by going down fighting. I have nothing else to add.</p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-82365701320833555042009-04-26T12:28:00.001-04:002009-04-26T12:28:34.676-04:00Round 1, Game 4 Postmortem: Ko-Bee! Ko-Bee! Ko-Bee!<p>Wow, what that guy ever focused, or what? He was a man on a mission, and that mission was: to reassert my dominance on a small market team. For those of you who didn’t watch the game let me cut to the chase: the mission was successful. The <strong>Lakers</strong> are up 3-1, and now on the verge of closing out the series at home in <strong>LA</strong>. (Like so many people, <em>myself included</em>, predicted) <strong>Utah</strong> fought hard for the first half, but their offense fell off in the 2nd and could not keep up with the <strong>Kobe</strong> juggernaut. </p> <p>Bench guys stepped up for the <strong>Lakers</strong> as well, while <strong>Utah</strong> looked disjointed all game long. <strong>Utah</strong> took it willingly by not playing physical or running their sets. It reminded me a lot of the <strong>Game 4</strong> in the<strong> Western Conference Finals</strong> two seasons ago when the <strong>Jazz</strong> were manhandled at home by the <strong>Spurs</strong>. <strong>Utah</strong> then, <em>and last night,</em> would go inside and after getting fouled look to the refs for a call instead of making shots. Sure, there were some bad calls (and an even worse broadcast crew, dude, I think that <strong>Doris</strong> girl just did a <strong>Lewinski</strong> on <strong>Kobe</strong> at halftime) – but it’s the playoffs. You have to have the mental fortitude to play through that and force it down their throats. </p> <p>Only <strong>Deron</strong> and <strong>Boozer</strong> seemed to understand that during parts of the game – and they both shot poorly compared to what they are capable of. The third best player was <strong>AK</strong>, and he didn’t get enough burn. <strong>Brewer</strong> had to go to a burn ward after the game because <strong>Kobe</strong> took it personal. <strong>Memo</strong> played his first game in weeks, and looked incapable of locating and locking on someone in transition defense. The <strong>Lakers</strong> were good on the break last game (something they didn’t capitalize on in <strong>game 3</strong>) and made the <strong>Jazz</strong> pay. <strong>Memo</strong> looked all out of it, his rust showed.</p> <p>Sadly, this could have been <strong>Hot Rod’s</strong> last year behind the mic, and last game for his career. Sad that it ends in a loss.</p> <p>Lakers look determined and strong. Utah looks unfocused and afraid. Looks like that thorn in the Lion’s paw only served to wake the lion up, and not be a hindrance at all.</p> <p>Bravo <strong>Kobe</strong>, you had an amazing scoring game – and you did what you had to do to bounce back from a poor shooting night. This is exactly what you want from your team leader.</p> <p>P.S. <strong>Bynum</strong> and <strong>Gasol</strong> have not impressed me at all in this series. If <strong>Kobe</strong> is going to get a ring this year, he’s going to need something from those two.</p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-45507220760271837182009-04-25T17:26:00.001-04:002009-04-25T17:26:14.689-04:00Round 1, Game 4: It’s simple . . .<p><img style="display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px" height="208" src="http://www.uiowa.edu/~isbrp/images/Aesop.jpg" width="203" align="left" /> There really is not much to say about this game. And there’s really no reason to hype up this game at all either. Both teams know what is at stake. For the <strong>Lakers</strong> it’s the potential set up blow before the knock out. You know that the <strong>Lakers</strong> would much rather win this game, and end it at home – instead of having to prolong the series to 6 (or more) games. <strong>LA</strong> wants to get a break, rest up, and be ready for the next round. In order to do that they’ve got to make this series short. How do they do that? By winning games on the road.</p> <p>It’s even simpler for the <strong>Jazz</strong> – as the proverbial thorn in the lion’s paw they can extend the agony of the beast by remaining just where they are – <strong>Salt Lake City</strong>. <strong>Utah</strong> is a good home team, and they need to win this game, for the chance to live another day. If the <strong>Jazz</strong> lose this game then it’s pretty much all over on a very disappointing season. <strong>Utah</strong> has some warriors on their team though, and like that frustratingly difficult to remove thorn, they are not going to just give up.</p> <p>Some <strong>Lakers fans</strong> feel like a <strong>Game 4 win</strong> is a forgone conclusion. This may be the case, but at what cost?</p> <div align="center"> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="322" align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="320"><img height="184" src="http://www.visual-voice.net/images/photos/jan06/ph_jan_splinter.jpg" width="238" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="320">Small, incapable of producing a fatal wound&#160; <br />– but strong enough to hurt real bad, <br />and potentially cripple the mightiest of beasts.</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p align="left"><strong>Utah</strong> is above goonery, though a 5 game series vs. the <strong>Jazz</strong> can mimic the effects of a 7 game series against a less physical foe. If the <strong>Jazz</strong> happen to win <strong>game 4</strong>, well, that means at least another 2 that the <strong>Lakers</strong> have to play (another one in <strong>Utah</strong>) – games that they would have much rather have not had to play at all. (Lots of people thought LAL – UTH = sweep)</p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-63416158983038593772009-04-24T16:14:00.001-04:002009-04-24T16:14:47.770-04:00Boozer’s filthy nasty throwdown on Gasol<p>Boozer just flat out owned Gasol on this play. How bad was it? It was like what Spanish history would have been like during the time of Moorish Invasions if <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Cid" target="_blank">El Cid</a> did not exist. It was both fitly <u><em>and</em></u> nasty. Ask any <strong>Lakers fan</strong> and they will flat out admit that it was <strike>a great play</strike> <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/04/round-1-game-3-postmortem-luck.html" target="_blank">pure luck</a>.</p> <div align="center"> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="414" align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="412"> <div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:01b55f22-0888-40f8-ab1a-ef2a5b8fde91" style="padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px"><div id="12c57f9f-16ef-41a6-b9b0-95ee1395abef" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFFyk9ZBKR4&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hd=1" target="_new"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SfIdtxhMyGI/AAAAAAAABv8/pBLMJ9xKQco/videof9dfcef07dd9%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('12c57f9f-16ef-41a6-b9b0-95ee1395abef'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = &quot;&lt;div&gt;&lt;object width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=\&quot;movie\&quot; value=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/wFFyk9ZBKR4&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hd=1&amp;hl=en\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/param&gt;&lt;embed src=\&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/wFFyk9ZBKR4&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;hd=1&amp;hl=en\&quot; type=\&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash\&quot; width=\&quot;425\&quot; height=\&quot;355\&quot;&gt;&lt;\/embed&gt;&lt;\/object&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;&quot;;" alt=""></a></div></div></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="412">!Si, Gasol es la puta de Boozer!</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-53392655725944857632009-04-24T15:07:00.001-04:002009-04-24T15:18:35.538-04:00Round 1, Game 3 Postmortem: Luck<p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SfIN9H0BTrI/AAAAAAAABvs/1tz4G-JZ9zE/s1600-h/April%2023%2C%202005%20%5BAndrew%20D.%20Bernstein%20NBAE%20Getty%20Images%5D%20Boozer%20on%20Gasol%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="April 23, 2005 [Andrew D. Bernstein NBAE Getty Images] Boozer on Gasol" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="484" alt="April 23, 2005 [Andrew D. Bernstein NBAE Getty Images] Boozer on Gasol" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SfIN9YH-wcI/AAAAAAAABvw/bHCZrOEO5Fc/April%2023%2C%202005%20%5BAndrew%20D.%20Bernstein%20NBAE%20Getty%20Images%5D%20Boozer%20on%20Gasol_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="323" align="left" border="0" /></a> If you look at any <strong>Lakers blogs</strong>, <strong>message boards</strong>, or even threads on (apparently team neutral blogs) like <strong><a href="http://dimemag.com/2009/04/dime-smack-nba-playoffs-2009-lakers-jazz-carlos-boozer-deron-williams-game-winner-kobe-bryant/#comments" target="_blank">Dimemag</a></strong> or <strong>Ball Don’t Lie</strong> you’ll see the <a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/-Net-reaction-Lakers-at-Jazz-Game-3?urn=nba,158804#comments" target="_blank">comments section</a> rife with <strong>Lakers fans</strong> who completely attribute this <strong>Lakers</strong> loss (<em>wasn’t a <strong>Jazz</strong> win</em>) to luck. It was luck that <strong>Kobe</strong> <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=290423026" target="_blank">shot so poorly</a>. It was luck that <strong>Deron</strong> made that clutch basket (like he isn’t known for doing so in the playoffs – watch the last few <strong>Jazz</strong> series where he’s made clutch game winners/daggers in <strong>Houston</strong>, vs <strong>Golden State</strong> and against the <strong>Spurs</strong> – add the <strong>Lakers</strong> to that list). It was <strong>luck</strong> that the <strong>Jazz</strong> got the benefit of the doubt on so many calls.</p> <p>Really <strong>Lakers fans</strong>? Is this the best you can do? You can’t even admit that when it counted in a sloppy game for both teams, that the <strong>Lakers</strong> did not have what it takes to get the job done – when they were up by 13 in the 3rd quarter against a team playing without their 2nd best scorer, 2nd best rebounder, best three point shooter and arguably, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPU1ENTW2O0&amp;feature=related" target="_blank">most clutch player</a>?</p> <p>Sore losers much? It was never about the <strong>Jazz</strong> winning the game in their minds, which is quite rude. </p> <p>Of course, not all <strong>Lakers</strong> fans are like this – only the millions of them on the internet who espouse abrasive personal attacks with fandom. It’s pathetic. <u>Man up and take the loss</u>. It doesn’t mean your team isn’t great. It doesn’t mean that your team isn’t still a media darling that’s favored in this – and countless other possible playoff series. It just means that you guys aren’t perfect.</p> <p><strong>Utah</strong> plays great at home, and they were bound to have some bounces fall their way. The reffing wasn’t as one sided as some <strong>Lakers</strong> fans think: after all, for every one call <strong>Millsap</strong> gets there are 4 that he doesn’t get. Calling <strong>Brewer</strong> out of bounds when he wasn’t, and he was under the basket for a dunk, is also crushing. <strong>Deron’s</strong> mind farts really gave the <strong>Lakers</strong> enough chances to win this game. (8 second call)&#160; Probably the most crazy thing is that the <strong>Lakers bigs</strong> have yet to be called for <strong>Three in the Key</strong> once this series it appears. <strong>Bynum</strong> is in the paint 5-6 seconds at a time without the ball . . . yet no calls are made.</p> <p>It’s not luck that the <strong>Jazz</strong> won – after all, <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/04/home-aka-slc-is-where-wins-are.html" target="_blank">they are pretty good at home</a>. It’s probably luck that the <strong>Jazz</strong> were able to own the boards against the <strong>Lakers</strong> (who are all so tall) without <strong>Memo</strong> playing a minute in this series.</p> <p>Is it lucky that <strong>Kobe</strong> missed so many shots that he usually makes? Perhaps, but was it also not luck that <strong>Deron</strong> shot so poorly in Game 1 – making only 4 FGs? Or was it defense in the case of the <strong>Lakers</strong>, and <strong>luck</strong> when it comes to the <strong>Jazz</strong> . . . <em>how about some internal consistency, guys</em>?</p> <p><strong>Ronnie Brewer</strong> has the unenviable task of trying to limit <strong>Kobe Bryant</strong> – and he’s doing a bang up job. Last night he got some help from <strong>Carlos</strong> <strong>Boozer</strong> who showed defensive ability that we haven’t seen from him since he was in <strong>Ohio</strong>. Starting <strong>AK</strong> was important because you really give your team a chance to play better defense when you actually have your best defenders on the floor. <strong>AK</strong> was also pretty good on making his shots in the paint and making sure passes. We didn’t see much of him in the <strong>2nd half</strong>, and it worked as <strong>Korver</strong> found his shot and <strong>Harpring</strong> found a time machine and turned back the clock like it was <strong>2005</strong>.</p> <p><strong>Utah</strong> can’t rely on this singular win though, the <strong>Jazz</strong> have to win <strong>Game 4 </strong>to make this a true series. If they do then <strong>Lakers</strong> fans everywhere will still attribute it to <strong>luck</strong>. But whatever, <strong>Lakers</strong> fans are given a bad name online because of how some of them behave. It’s not fair. But life isn’t.</p> <p>After all, as a <strong>Jazz</strong> <strong>fan</strong> I know this as we are currently starting <strong>Jarron Collins</strong> against a frontcourt tandem of <strong>Pau Gasol </strong>and <strong>Andrew Bynum</strong>. </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SfIN9w0w9qI/AAAAAAAABv0/LU7iya3kQQM/s1600-h/LA%20Lakers%20at%20SLC%20in%20Playoffs%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="LA Lakers at SLC in Playoffs -- Luck?" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="231" alt="LA Lakers at SLC in Playoffs -- Luck?" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/SfIN-Bcj6hI/AAAAAAAABv4/2rRWpEmyou4/LA%20Lakers%20at%20SLC%20in%20Playoffs_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="299" align="right" border="0" /></a> Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good . . . but what’s even more true is how much a mistake it is attribute success to luck when it was actually due to being good. <strong>Utah’s</strong> record sucked this year. Does that mean that <strong>Utah</strong> is really this bad – or does having over 150 man games lost to injury make a difference? <strong>Utah</strong> is good, their record was not – due to chance (Luck’s grandmother). You don’t beat the <strong>Lakers</strong> in the playoffs due to Luck. The <strong>Pacers</strong> <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=281202011" target="_blank">winning at home on a last second tip in is luck</a>. <strong>Utah</strong> getting the W at home isn’t due to <strong>Luck</strong>. All time the <strong>Lakers</strong> are 2-10 in <strong>SLC</strong> in the playoffs. Statistics show that in that case, it’s way more <em>likely</em> that the <strong>LAKERS</strong> were lucky twice, instead of the <strong>Jazz</strong> getting lucky 10 times.</p> <p align="center"><strong><u><em><font color="#400080" size="5">Luck off Lakers fans.</font></em></u></strong></p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-55293336440401421582009-04-23T15:08:00.001-04:002009-04-23T15:21:37.733-04:00Round 1, Game 3: Where the Moneyman doesn’t happen for the 3rd game in a row<p>Before this series started it would have been sheer folly to expect the <strong>Jazz</strong> to win 4 games. I did think that the <strong>Jazz</strong> would win 1, or even 2, in the process of the eventual <strong>Lakers</strong> advancement. That seems to be a pretty optimistic when <strong>Okur</strong> is still on the shelf. <strong>Memo</strong>, <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2009/04/round-1-game-2-lakers-will-win-here-is.html" target="_blank">as I’ve documented elsewhere</a>, has had a pretty good season against the <strong>Lakers</strong> (getting more than 20/10 vs. a pretty good defense when you don’t even average 20/10 is impressive). That’s more is that <strong>Memo</strong> is really missed when it comes to his clutch shooting ability (like that deep three he hit over <strong>Gasol</strong> in the 4th quarter a few months ago) and floor spacing ability. Without ANY serious threats outside the <strong>Lakers</strong> can just dare the <strong>Jazz</strong> to shoot while clogging up the paint. The <strong>Lakers</strong> are facing a team that’s offensively challenged from the outside; while being long enough themselves to get back and defend the three point stripe if they need to. Really not having <strong>Memo</strong> around has hurt the <strong>Jazz</strong> more than anything else the <strong>Lakers</strong> have done so far on defense.</p> <div align="center"> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="400" align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="400">You can’t replace this with <strong>Jarron Collins</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="400">&lt;youtube.com video goes here&gt; <br /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p><strong>Sloan</strong> is now electing to start <strong>Kirilenko</strong> tonight, hopefully that means <a href="http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/2008/10/flashback-friday-andrei-back-when-he.html" target="_blank">he’ll play more than 35 mins as well</a>. A motivated <strong>Andrei</strong> is a pretty good one, it seems odd, but the more a team needs him the better he apparently is capable of playing. (Just take a look at the <strong>European</strong> championships in <strong>2007</strong> where it was him and some scrubs knocking off <strong>Spain</strong> in the finals, on <strong>Spain’s</strong> own home court . . . eat it <strong>Gasol</strong>, <strong>Calderon</strong>, <strong>Rudy</strong>, <strong>Ricky</strong>, <strong>Jorge</strong>, <strong>Gasol #2</strong>, that guy who used to play for the <strong>Grizzlies</strong> and has a good floater, and crew) The <strong>Jazz fans</strong> only have to look as far as last season when the <strong>Jazz</strong> knocked off the <strong>Lakers</strong> in <strong>SLC</strong> when the <strong>Lakers</strong> were healthy, and the <strong>Jazz</strong> were without <strong>Boozer</strong> and <strong>Okur</strong>. <strong>Andrei</strong> had a <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=271130026" target="_blank">triple double in that game and almost a 5 x 5.</a> I doubt that he has that in him for tonight, but he needs to play serious minutes and be effective in order for the <strong>Jazz</strong> to have a chance of defending their home court.</p> <p><strong>Deron</strong> and <strong>Booz</strong> have shown that they can’t get it done by themselves. That third man needs to step up in <strong>Memo’s</strong> absence. That guy should be <strong>Andrei</strong>, when you look at his pedigree as a top international player, former <strong>All-Defensive</strong> team member, former <strong>All-Star</strong>, <strong>MVP</strong> of <strong>Europe</strong> and well, his <em><u>contract</u></em>. <strong>Brewer</strong> is nice, <strong>Millsap</strong> is nice and <strong>Korver</strong> can be nice – but to beat the <strong>Lakers</strong> tonight without <strong>Memo</strong> it’s going to take something special from <strong>Andrei</strong> to get it done.</p> <div align="center"> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="471" align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="469">&lt;youtube is unavailable, so enjoy this german website’s attempt instead&gt;</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="469"><object style='width:470px;height:406px;' width='470' height='406' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' data='http://www.myvideo.de/movie/2886069'><param name="movie" value="http://www.myvideo.de/movie/2886069"></param><param name="AllowFullscreen" value="true"></param><param name="AllowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.myvideo.de/movie/2886069" width="470" height="406"></embed></object> <br />BTW, there’s a LOT of swearing in this video, NSFW</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> <p align="center"><strong><em><font size="6"><font color="#0080ff">Go</font> <font color="#8000ff">Jazz</font> <font color="#0080ff">Go</font>!</font></em></strong></p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-8928602043985970462009-04-22T11:15:00.001-04:002009-04-22T11:47:17.417-04:00Round 1, Game 2 Post Mortem: Lakers down Jazz in better contested game<p><img style="display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px" height="476" alt="" src="http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/39/fullj.7ee1c425d7afa89bdbc1b18448ce0b42/7ee1c425d7afa89bdbc1b18448ce0b42-getty-86012920ab033_jazz_lakers.jpg" width="318" align="left" /></p> <p>I don’t think that this is unexpected at all. And I’m not upset with it – probably because I only watched the last 18 minutes of the game (man, catching up on overflowing DVR recordings can be a chore). I didn’t see any ridiculous calls one way or the other, and the expected unguardability of <strong>Kobe</strong> caused a variety of guys open for shots . . . again. If anything, I was surprised that guys like <strong>Ariza</strong> and <strong>Brown</strong> stayed hot. I didn’t watch every <strong>Lakers game</strong> this season, but I really did not expect these guys to be shooting it this well.</p> <p>In the end, though, the <strong>Jazz</strong> <strong>were</strong> able to bring the margin (<em>once 20</em>) down to 3 in the 4th quarter before the <strong>Lakers</strong> made some shots, the ball bounced in a funny way a few times, and their defense and length really stepped up. <strong>Utah</strong> had to foul, and the final margin looks a lot larger than the game was in the 4th.</p> <p><strong>Kobe</strong> was <strong>Kobe</strong>, and <strong>Deron</strong> was <strong>Deron</strong>. <strong>Kobe</strong> is getting a lot of support from his team mates, while <strong>Deron</strong> pretty much has to do it alone. <strong>Utah’s</strong> wings look very timid right now – and that sucks for <strong>Utah</strong>. <strong>Korver</strong> is supposed to be a guy who shoots the ball with confidence – in this game he was missing technical free throws and rushing shots that he hasn’t even taken once all season long while avoiding shooting the ball on designed plays where he is supposed to shoot. <strong>Andrei</strong> is making an effort not to make mistakes, but at the expense of actually doing anything. (If you play video games, and are familiar with <strong>Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.</strong> you might agree that <strong>AK</strong> is a guy who is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QRlD1Qh-BE" target="_blank">only useful when he’s not in ‘assistance on’ mode</a>, he’s much better when he’s free and allowed to play a more dangerous game, even if he is at a risk of stalling) <strong>Brewer’s</strong> defense on <strong>Kobe</strong> was airtight on some plays, but <strong>Kobe</strong> just made some crazy shots down the stretch (nothing new), and on the other side of the ball he was getting blocked inside by <strong>Gasol</strong> and crew. <strong>C.J. Miles</strong> does not seem to be in this series at all.</p> <p>Those four guys averaged 43.4 PPG in the regular season. So far in two games they have averaged 34.0 PPG. That’s a margin of 10 points. What was the final margin of last nights game? Oh yeah, 10 points. Not all the blame goes to the wings though . . . it’s just that their output is clearly less than what it should be.</p> <p><em>Credit the <strong>Lakers</strong> defense again.</em></p> <p>The <strong>Lakers</strong> defense hurts everyone, it’s made <strong>Millsap</strong> into a jump shooter, while earlier in the season he was a guy who could create his own shot in the paint. It’s made <strong>Boozer</strong> selectively effective on offense – though when he was healthy he was having an <strong>All-Star season</strong>. <strong>Deron Williams</strong> was credited with 7 turn overs last night. Of course, this is how the statistic is scored, but it’s not his fault when the guys he passes the ball to can’t catch. More than anything the <strong>Jazz</strong> are doing, this series seems to be predicated on what the <strong>Lakers</strong> are allowing. Their length cannot be stated enough . . . from being able to block shots inside (like <strong>Deron</strong> and <strong>Brewer</strong> getting stuff by <strong>Gasol</strong> with under 90 seconds to play in under 24 seconds of action); cut off passing angles and cause deflections – which then become steals. </p> <p>It’s not like <strong>Utah</strong> got where they are today, in this season, with defense. They got to the playoffs with offense. And the <strong>Lakers</strong> are taking the <strong>Jazz</strong> right out of their comfort zone.</p> <p>Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom. In two games the Jazz <strong>have</strong> ended up falling to the <strong>Lakers</strong> by a combined 23 points. (Yes, lowly <strong>Utah</strong> on the road) Both times the <strong>Jazz</strong> were without the services of <strong>Mehmet Okur –</strong> who (<em>if you look at his game splits</em>) gave the <strong>Lakers</strong> no end of trouble. He averaged (against amazing <strong>LA </strong>this season) 21.5 ppg, 10.5 rpg, 55.56 fg%, 44.4 3pt%, made all of his FT, and still managed 1.5 spg and 1.5 bpg.</p> <p>Look at that. <strong>Utah</strong> net was –23. <strong>Okur</strong> gets 21.5 ppg vs <strong>LA</strong>. He hasn’t played yet. He’s going to play in <strong>Game 3</strong>. And <strong>Game 3</strong> is at home – where <strong>Utah</strong> beats the <strong>Lakers</strong> 70% of the time. <strong>LA</strong> took care of their business at home, expect the <strong>Jazz</strong> to put up a very strong fight in attempt to do the same.</p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8440104751689705134.post-58287868822636482322009-04-21T12:16:00.001-04:002009-04-21T12:16:45.735-04:00Round 1, Game 2: The Lakers will win, here is why.<p><strong>Utah</strong> is a nice team, they’ve had injuries this year, never got it going, and it appears as though they’ve taken a huge step back from where they were last season. They have a very little shot against a team like the <strong>2008-2009 LA Lakers</strong>. </p> <p align="center"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Se3xX861mPI/AAAAAAAABvc/SUpRxKa0oGE/s1600-h/f_lakerlanderm_1f4d577%5B3%5D.gif"><img title="f_lakerlanderm_1f4d577" style="display: inline" height="404" alt="f_lakerlanderm_1f4d577" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6bd2hkLwHIQ/Se3xazGTmzI/AAAAAAAABvk/6dBIxg-NBpE/f_lakerlanderm_1f4d577_thumb%5B1%5D.gif?imgmax=800" width="856" /></a> </p> <p>Tonight is game 2 of the series and expect there to be adjustments in both teams’ game plans.</p> <p>The <strong>Lakers</strong> did a great job of making <strong>Deron</strong> (and the rest of the <strong>Jazz</strong>) miss shots that they usually make – uncontested jumpers or layups in the paint. <strong>Utah</strong> couldn’t hit the side of a barn in last game. The <strong>Lakers</strong> length inside is just too much, <strong>Paul Millsap</strong> is only 6’8 and can usually make up the difference in height with hustle – but not against a front line that all boast over 9’ standing reaches. The <strong>Lakers</strong> also had the benefit of not needing defend one of the best three point shooters this season (<a href="http://www.nba.com/statistics/player/3PointS.jsp?league=00&amp;season=22008&amp;conf=OVERALL&amp;position=0&amp;splitType=9&amp;splitScope=GAME&amp;qualified=Y&amp;yearsExp=-1&amp;splitDD=" target="_blank">44.6 3pt%, good enough for #6 in the L</a>) due to injury, so they didn’t need to worry about floor spacing at all and could pack it into the paint with impunity. There was no fear of reprisal from the three point line at all because <strong>Deron</strong> is having an off year from deep, <strong>CJ Miles</strong> has a finger and wrist injury to his shooting hand and <strong>Andrei</strong> only makes threes in the 4th quarter of games. The only guy to contest was <strong>Kyle Korver</strong>, and <strong>Ariza</strong> had him all bottled up.</p> <p>The <strong>Lakers</strong> shut down the <strong>Jazz</strong> offense. The only adjustments I can see <strong>Sloan</strong> making to counter this would be to run more isolation plays – which removes the necessary ball movement and player movement that make the <strong>Jazz</strong> offense so potent. Without <strong>Okur</strong> (or bereft of 1990’s era Illegal Defense rules) <strong>Jerry Sloan’s</strong> attack can be nerfed quite a bit. After all, having one of their worst shooting games all season long, playing with an injured starter and without their third best player the <strong>Jazz</strong> were only able to muster up 100 points on the road on the <strong>Lakers homecourt</strong> when they were completely healthy and rested. OBVIOUSLY the <strong>Lakers</strong> have nothing to fear. After all, <strong>Deron</strong> can be counted on to only make 4 FG the rest of the way, right? <strong>GOOOOO LAKERS</strong>!</p> <p>On the other side of the ball the <strong>Lakers</strong> were firing on all cylinders. <strong>Kobe</strong> didn’t have to take a lot of shots, and the interior passing to and of the bigmen baffled the <strong>Jazz</strong> all game long. <strong>Utah</strong> was having fits inside trying to guard <strong>Gasol</strong>, <strong>Odom</strong>, <strong>Bynum</strong> and crew with <strong>Jarron Collins</strong> (who is the guy you call on to set up your blackberry email accounts, not to shut down <strong>All-Star centers</strong> in the paint), <strong>Carlos Boozer</strong> (who’s defense makes <strong>Collins’</strong> defense look like <strong>Ben Wallace</strong> in comparison) and <strong>Paul Millsap</strong>. <strong>Millsap</strong> isn’t a poor defender by any means, but he’s at a terrible disadvantage in any of these matchups, <strong>Odom</strong> faces him up 18 ft from the basket and can dribble by him, <strong>Gasol</strong> is just too long and quick inside and <strong>Bynum</strong> just too big. We’ve all heard the idiom of “going into a gunfight with a knife”. Trying to defend the <strong>Lakers bigs</strong> with the three guys I listed for the <strong>Jazz</strong> is like going into a gunfight while in the process of having emergency open heart surgery – there’s just no way for things to end well for you.</p> <p>The <strong>Lakers</strong> don’t need to make any adjustments here because the inside attack is predicated on the fact that the <strong>Jazz</strong> can’t stop it. This allows guys on the outside with very open looks – and if you watched last game you know that guys like <strong>Ariza</strong>, <strong>Brown</strong> and crew cannot miss open jumpers ever. It’s impossible. The <strong>Lakers</strong> will have all their role players make all of their shots. <em>Always</em>. Even <strong>Luke Walton</strong>. <strong><u>FACT</u></strong>! The only thing that could change this would be if <strong>Old Jerry Sloan</strong> started to actually play his centers on the other teams’ centers, instead of putting defensively challenged forwards on them. (Why is <strong>Harpring</strong> even defending PFs at all? ever?) <strong>Utah</strong> has a pair of young, raw kids who rebound and block shots with little regard for human life. They’ve been able to handle the likes of <strong>Shaq</strong> and <strong>Yao Ming</strong> during stretches of this season (when everyone was injured). <strong>Jerry</strong> has no intention of ever using them to defend the likes of <strong>Bynum</strong> . . . so <strong>Lakers fans</strong> have nothing to fear. <strong>Pau Gasol</strong> will still make class clown type of comments in the post-game press conference, including all the funny faces that we’ve all come to love.</p> <p>After two games it will be <strong>LA 2 – Utah 0</strong></p> <p>You heard it here first, Internet.</p> Amarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10396633254780588804noreply@blogger.com0